The last piece in Paul Bilzerian’s financing jigsaw puzzle for his $50 a share bid for Singer Co fell into place on Wednesday when T Boone Pickens’ Mesa Holding Limited Partnership agreed to buy the $150m of junior subordinated notes that had threatened to stymie the cash offer. Mesa, like Bilzerian’s Singer Acquisition Co, has 9.9% of the Singer equity, and therefore has a clear interest in seeing the bid succeed since without it, the Singer share price would crash. Bilzerian now has commitments totalling $1,145m – $540m from a syndicate of banks led by National Westminster, another $355m from a Shearson Lehman Brothers Inc affiliate, and the Bilzerian group is also committed to putting up $100m in new equity. The $50 a share offer, now almost certain to succeed, expires Monday. If Bilzerian gets control of the Montvale, New Jersey company, he plans to sell off most of its defence interests, and a string of UK firms led by Plessey Co are likely contenders for parts of Singer Co.
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