Saint-Étienne arms manufacturer Verney-Carron in cessation of payments and requests receivership
Saint-Étienne
From Tuesday, February 11, 2025 at 10:17
By Louise Thomann
here Saint-Étienne Loire

Via a press release published this Tuesday, February 11, Cybergun, the owner of the ancestral Saint-Étienne hunting rifle manufacturer, announces that Verney-Carron is in cessation of payments. The gunsmith is requesting to be placed in receivership: the hearing is to take place tomorrow, Wednesday 12.

The announcement falls this Tuesday, February 11 in the morning in a press release from Cybergun, confirming internal fears since the beginning of the year. The historic hunting rifle manufacturer from Saint-Étienne Verney-Carron declares itself in cessation of payments. It is also requesting to be placed in receivership, which is to be studied on Wednesday, February 12 at the commercial court.

The announcement was made this Tuesday, February 11 in the morning in a press release from Cybergun, confirming internal fears since the beginning of the year. The historic hunting rifle manufacturer from Saint-Étienne Verney-Carron has declared itself insolvent. It is also requesting to be placed in receivership, which is to be examined on Wednesday, February 12 at the commercial court.

A potential new shareholder?

In the same press release, Cybergun announces that "advanced discussions" are underway with a potential "partner" (Hugo Brugière, CEO of Cybergun, refusing the term "buyer"), "a major player in small-caliber weapons worldwide". The group, currently the majority shareholder of Verney-Carron, intends to keep a stake in the capital of the Saint-Étienne gunmaker, but "minority", within the framework of these negotiations.

The manager of Cybergun explains that this passage through receivership is a necessary step for the arrival of a new shareholder, to reassure him. The procedure allows the financial situation of the Verney-Carron company to be frozen, still in debt to the tune of one million euros despite Cybergun's 12 million investments. Not wanting to reveal the name of the group that could acquire a stake in the Saint-Étienne gunmaker, he nevertheless specifies that things could move forward in the coming weeks, once the procedure is initiated at the commercial court. Hugo Brugière does not say he is worried about employment at Verney-Carron.

Contacted, the CGT of Verney-Carron does not wish to communicate before the hearing at the Saint-Étienne commercial court, scheduled for Wednesday, February 12 at 2 p.m. Around sixty people work in the two-hundred-year-old family business, which was bought in 2022 by the Cybergun group, which specializes in airsoft weapons and non-lethal flashball-type weapons.

USAF RET 1971-95 [Linked Image from jpgbox.com]