The Singer Acquisition Co. announced last Wednesday that it completed its takeover of Singer Co., owning 90 percent of all company common stock, said Andrew Swenson, one of the lawyers for the acquisition group.
The acquisition group, led by Florida investor Paul Bilzerian, needed 75 percent of the company common stock to complete the takeover.
Singer Co., located in Montvale, N.J., is the parent company of HRB- Singer of Ferguson Township, Centre County's largest industrial employer. The division designs and creates classified computer and electronic equipment for U.S. defense agencies.
Michael Ingram, Bilzerian's lawyer, previously said that once the takeover is complete, the defense electronics subsidiaries will be sold off.
Wesley Brown, president of HRB-Singer, said in an earlier interview that he thinks the takeover will not have an effect on the local division since whoever buys the company knows the business.
J.Randall Woolridge, associate professor of finance at the University, said the defense electronics units are profitable only with contracts made by the government. In the case of Singer Co., he said selling those units and holding on to the cash generators, such as the manufacturing units, will allow Bilzerian to service the debt he will take on in purchasing the company.
Woolridge said the divisions could be bought by the company's management but doubts it would do that because the management would have a very large debt to take on.
He said the divisions will probably be sold to other defense contracting firms such as Boeing Co. or Ford Motor Co.
"We don't know exactly which company will purchase which branch. We should know in about two months -- probably by the end of March," Swenson said.
The acquisition group extended the tender offer for the eighth time last week until Feb. 1 in an attempt to negotiate default provisions with Singer's banks. Since then, Swenson said other banks have taken on the loan.
"Basically, we have refinanced the loans with other banks that don't have the default provisions," Swenson said.
