Italian gun manufacturer Beretta is launching a proxy fight to take control of Sturm, Ruger and Co., America’s largest firearms maker, sources familiar with the matter have told The Post.
Insiders said the 500-year-old European firm, which has built a 10% stake in Hartford, Conn.-based Ruger, wants to nominate four executives to join the nine-member board — a move designed to gain more control over the main US rival to Smith & Wesson.
Sources said the nominees included William Franklin Detwiler, managing partner of Fernbrook Capital Management; Mark DeYoung, the founding CEO of Vista Outdoor; Frederick Disanto, CEO of Ancora Holdings; and Michael Christodolou, the founder of Inwood Capital Management.
A proxy fight is an unfriendly contest for control of a company in which a group of shareholders tries to convince other investors to vote out the current board of directors or management.
Any vote would likely take place at Ruger’s annual general meeting scheduled for May 29.
The clash has erupted amid a sales slump and plunging profits at Ruger, with the price of its shares cratering by over 40% in the past four years.
As of Wednesday’s close, Ruger’s market cap hovered at $581 million.
When Beretta first revealed an initial 9% stake in an October filing, it said that it wanted to explore “potential areas of operational and strategic collaborations” with Ruger.
The US firm then adopted a one-year shareholder rights plan amid concerns about a growing ownership stake accumulated by the Italian giant.
Such plans — often called “poison pills” — aimed to make hostile takeovers more difficult by diluting the ownership of an acquiring investor that exceeds a specified threshold.
Beretta — an iconic gun manufacturer with ties to Italy’s Alpine region of Lombardy that was founded in 1526 — raked in $1.7 billion in revenue in 2024 and has been snapping up rivals like Switzerland’s RUAG Ammotec in 2022.
Pietro Gussalli Beretta, a 15th-generation heir to founder Bartolomeo Beretta, steers the company.
It has been seeking a greater presence in the US, which has the world’s largest legal firearms market, owing to the Second Amendment.
The Post has sought comment from Beretta and Ruger.
