Trafalgar
Strategic Concepts & Mechanics
Primary Evidence
"In April 1983, Peltz and May (in a two-thirds/ one-third partnership) purchased Goldberg’s block, 29 percent of Triangle’s shares, for about $ 14 million. Two million was lent to Trafalgar; twelve million was lent to Peltz and May, from Manufacturers Hanover and Bankers Trust. Bankers Trust took the stock as collateral; Manufacturers Hanover took Peltz’s and May’s signatures and a lien on Peltz’s house in Quogue. Peltz recalled that it took all his powers of persuasion at the bank, and that when he finally walked out of Bill Rykman’s office at Manufacturers Hanover with the certified check in hand and met Goldberg, Goldberg told him that he couldn’t do the deal after all, because the Triangle board would not approve the change of control. “I literally ran the check under his nose, the spittle started to come out of his mouth, he was dying to put his arms around the money,” Peltz declared. “I said, ‘Let me try, let me talk to the board, let me show them I don’t have horns.’"
"Peltz understood that if he was to have a vehicle for acquisitions, that vehicle would have to have cash flow sufficient to make the interest payments on its debt. Trafalgar had almost no cash flow. And no one—including the hungry Milken—would raise any junk-bond financing for him until he had a company with some kind of cash flow."
"In April 1983, Peltz and May (in a two-thirds/one-third partnership) purchased Goldberg’s block, 29 percent of Triangle’s shares, for about $14 million. Two million was lent to Trafalgar; twelve million was lent to Peltz and May, from Manufacturers Hanover and Bankers Trust. Bankers Trust took the stock as collateral; Manufacturers Hanover took Peltz’s and May’s signatures and a lien on Peltz’s house in Quogue. Peltz recalled that it took all his powers of persuasion at the bank, and that when he finally walked out of Bill Rykman’s office at Manufacturers Hanover with the certified check in hand and met Goldberg, Goldberg told him that he couldn’t do the deal after all, because the Triangle board would not approve the change of control. “I literally ran the check under his nose, the spittle started to come out of his mouth, he was dying to put his arms around the money,” Peltz declared. “I said, ‘Let me try, let me talk to the board, let me show them I don’t have horns.’ ”"
"Peltz understood that if he was to have a vehicle for acquisitions, that vehicle would have to have cash flow sufficient to make the interest payments on its debt. Trafalgar had almost no cash flow. And no one—including the hungry Milken—would raise any junk-bond financing for him until he had a company with some kind of cash flow."