Russian firearms manufacturer Molot seems to be in a bit of a spot. They filed for bankruptcy five years ago, but since that point their sales haven’t improved and no one has come along to rescue them with an injection of cash. Finally out of money to continue operations the entire company is going under the auctioneer’s hammer in one big lot expected to bring at least 1.5 billion rubles.

From the Russian publication Kommersant:

The sale by auction of one of the largest plants of the Kirov region – JSC “Vyatsko-Polyansky Machine-Building Plant” Molot “” (part of the state corporation “Rostec”) bankruptcy proceedings in respect of which was opened Kirov arbitration in October of 2013, officially announced the bankruptcy trustee Vitaly Shemigon now. According to published information, all property of “Hammer” is for sale in one lot. In this exhibition entered the whole production complex of “Hammer”: 91 buildings and structures, one plot of land owned and 11 leased sites (the area is not called), as well as objects of movable property – 12.89 thousand units of fixed assets (machinery and. equipment) and 30.75 thousand. units of inventory. In addition, in the same exhibition has become a 100% interest in the charter capital of LLC “Hammer-weapon” – a subsidiary factory, in which all the companies production has been allocated in the course of bankruptcy. Also included in the bankruptcy estate of intellectual property – patent rights in the 13 inventions, 11 utility models, 12 industrial designs and exclusive rights for 16 trademarks. In addition, as part of the lot – the right of claim to the LLC “Hammer-weapon” for supply contracts worth over 312 million rubles. The initial selling price of whole lot is 1.5 billion rubles, auction step -. 5% deposit – 20%.

Molot was the producer of a relatively popular line of rifles marketed under the “Vepr” name, imported by K-VAR and sold through a number of distributors. We reviewed the Molot Vepr-12 some time ago and fund it to be well made, if somewhat more expensive and regulatorily annoying.

There is currently no word if the company will continue operations following the sale, and if future firearms will be available for import into the US.

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39 COMMENTS

    • Hmm. Maybe Trump is interested in buying the company. That would really rattle some cages.

      • I thought the same thing, maybe trumps son will buy it and ship some nice AK’s to the USA for around $500-700.00. That sure would be nice, AW well that’s just a dream.?

  2. ₽1,500,000,000?

    What’s that, about $3,000?

    I might have to look into this. I’ll sell the whole lot to Arsenal!

  3. Their products were interesting, but inexpensive AR’s make their stuff less attractive to the casual firearm consumer.

  4. A whole arms company for $25.7 million? Really not a bad deal if you can turn them around.

    • Except that it’s in Russia. Whoever ‘wins’ that bidding, will be paying the blat to a whole raft of local and regional officials in order to even open the doors under the new owners – you bought it comrade, you must have more money…

      Don’t get me wrong, on it’s face it’s a helluva deal. But it’s like learning that your long lost uncle just left you a high-end 15-story apartment building. In Beirut. And the 5th Intifada is about to start…

      • Hence the “if”.

        If you know the right people and if you can grease the right palms and if the price of such graft is reasonable it could turn a tidy little profit. Those things are all based on who you are and who you know.

        I’d guess one of Vlad’s friends will have a nice little arms concern up and running in short order.

        • True, true. I guess my point was that it’s not much of an “auction” when the winning bidder is likely preordained, and the point of the exercise is to get someone new in to generate more Danegeld. As the last company was insolvent for what, 5 years plus, you have to wonder if anyone can pay the tax and keep something in the company coffers when the final cooking of the books is done.

          Maybe the last owners failed to make the right friends, maybe they paid too much to people who they should have leveraged by paying their higher-ups. It’s Russia, the only thing that’s clear for the last century is that the connected rich get richer, as long as it suits the interest of the Kremlin high-ups.

        • How about the United States. To hell with greasing the locals in Russia, buy the plant and all it’s holdings, move equipment to the U.S and make the SAIGA line a U.S line and not any longer a Russian one. Then just sell all the buildings and land to Russians.

          Then you can brag all about American Engineering and how we make the Saiga’s just like the Russians always do every time they copy, steal and reverse engineer something someone else made and designed to begin with.

  5. The 7.62 x 54 VEPR’s were hard to find for awhile. I put my name on a waiting list for one in 2012 but by the time they finally got one for me, Maryland’s heinous “Firearms Safety Law of 2013” was passed and it couldn’t be transferred to me in the ironically nicknamed “Free State”.

    • I was lucky/smart enough to pick up one of the PSL54C’s before they started making them from platinum. I also bought every mag I saw.

  6. So we can look for any Vepr firearms to triple in price on leglist and Gun Auctions…… thanks.

  7. I wonder if anyone will pick it up, not likely, might be the end of those rifles in Russia.

  9. Go bankrupt, change name, new owner not under trade embargo, bring back the NEW Vepr. How can part of the state corporation “Rostec” go under? Like DoD going under, DoD filed for bankruptcy, not one day in it’s history did it turn a profit, spent billions on failed projects and dated equipment…… But the NEW Department of War just announced a GRAND OPENING!!!

    • Contrary to popular belief, Molot was never under sanctions and Veprs have been coming into the country since.

  11. Went bankrupt by spending too much in steel for those extra heavy receivers. Now hopefully Kalash will buy them so they can sell us some “Molot Saigas”

  15. The way that Russian business laws are, the only company that is technically able to put a bid in is kalishnikov Concern…and they’d have to pay off the 41 million ruble debt too.

    • It’s a lively comment section today. That was almost as good as the new Colt/Molot combined company, Molt.

  19. I really should’ve got that Vepr back when Robarm was importing them. Heck, I should’ve gotten their “Expeditionary” rifle too. Too late now.

    • On their U.S page, they have Super Vepr in 30/06 and 7.62×51 Nato, I wouldn’t mind one of both myself for my collection.

  20. *snickers*

    Nick, Molot’s bankruptcy and sale are long-running jokes here. No one appears to be interested in buying for years, and for some reason it could be sold only as a whole (I believe the enterprise has some special formal status, like strategically important asset or something).

    No one here is especially surprised, because their sales were modest at best.

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