rifle maker Lakefield Arms Ltd.

CIL., incorporated in Bermuda in 1980, is an investment holding company which maintains corporate headquarters in Hamilton while its principle operations are conducted through wholly-owned subsidiaries, Savage Arms Inc. and Passive Bullet Traps Inc. in Westfield, Massachusetts.

The purchase price -- about $2 million was paid in a combination of cash and shares.

The acquisition of Lakefield Arms, located in Peterborough, finalised November 1, was announced November 3.

Mr. Al Taylor, president of Lakefield Arms, a privately-owned company before the purchase, could not be reached for comment.

Savage Arms makes firearms for big game hunting and target shooting.

In 1988, Mr. Peter Leighton, president and managing director, and Mr. Herman Frietsch, chairman of the board, resurrected Savage Arms through CIL. Savage Arms, organised in 1894 by Mr. Arthur Savage, was in bankruptcy when Mr.

Layton and Mr. Frietsch bought it.

"When we acquired Savage we carried on with that company's making of bolt action rifles and recently we started looking to expand into the .22 calibre rifle market,'' added Mr. Leighton, a Bermudian.

CIL, originally a spin-off of a US energy company, was "barely operating when we bought it in 1988,'' said Mr. Leighton. The company started in the oil trade business and was successful for a few years but by 1988 had fallen on hard times. Since then, through its acquisition of Savage Arms, the company has been "turned around,'' added Mr. Leighton, the principle shareholder of CIL.

Shares in Savage Arms were selling at about 12 cents six years ago and now trade at around US$2.50 on the NASDAQ smallcap exchange. The company also trades on the Toronto Stock Exchange. About three-quarters of the company's shareholder's are Canadian.

CIL's recently reported earnings of $2.06 million or 19 cents per share for the nine months ended July 31, 1994.

Instead of starting from scratch the company decided to purchase an existing .22 rifle maker -- Lakefield Arms -- which was, up until the purchase the only Canadian-owned manufacturer of. 22 calibre rifles.