Eley Ltd., Rimfire Ammo-Maker, Acquired by LDC for £42 million
ELEY Limited, the English producer of high-quality rimfire ammunition, has been acquired by LDC in a £42 million deal. LDC is a well-established private equity firm specializing in management buy-outs, equity release (cash out), development (DevCap) and acquisition finance transactions.
Eley Will Expand Production and Launch a New Ammo Product
With the LDC take-over, Eley ammo production will increase, thanks to fresh capital expenditures by LDC. In exciting news for shooters, “a new round will be launched” according to Andrew Lane, Managing Director of Eley/LDC. This new ammo product is a big mystery. We can’t speculate whether this is a completely new rimfire cartridge, or simply another variant of .22 LR or other popular rimfire round. (Might Eley be producing 17 HMR in the future?) Along with the expanded production, Eley plans to open a new test facility for “the strategically important Scandinavian market-place.” We presume that will be located in Norway or Sweden, but no location has been revealed as yet.
Andrew Lane explained the benefits of the LDC deal: “While Eley’s growth has been strong over the past few years, IMI is now focused on specialist flow control activities. In LDC we have found an investor that has similarly ambitious targets and who fully buys into our business plan and development strategy.”
In the competitive arena, Eley has been extremely successful in recent years. Notably, all Gold medalists at the recent 2014 World Championships in Spain shot Eley ammo, and current Number 1-ranked shooters are using ELEY ammunition.
ELEY has grown in recent years and it now has 122 employees, mainly in operations, manufacturing and distribution. Eley was founded in 1826 by the Eley Brothers and moved to the Birmingham area after World War I. A division of Nobel Explosives, it eventually became a subsidiary of ICI in 1926. It later formed part of the IMI metals division that was separated from ICI in 1977. Following this deal with LDC, it is once again an independent company.
