New Owners for Gun Maker OKd

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — The company that makes Winchester rifles will get new owners next month in a multimillion-dollar deal approved by federal bankruptcy court and the city of New Haven.

It will be the second change of ownership in six years for U.S. Repeating Arms Co., which filed for bankruptcy protection from creditors in January, 1986. The company employs 624 in New Haven and an additional 147 in Hingham, Mass. “No one is going to get rich in this deal,” said Massachusetts executive Peter Alcock, who is one of the new owners.

Alcock and a group of private investors plan to pump $6 million into the company, while the Browning sporting firearms group of Fabrique Nationale Herstal of Belgium will put up $2 million. The new owners will also assume about $35 million in debt. The takeover is scheduled to be completed Oct. 30.