Company Town : CBS Buyout Cash Appears Certain

Westinghouse Electric Corp. has lined up more than enough financing commitments to complete its $5.4-billion purchase of CBS Inc., banking sources said Thursday.

It may need the extra money. With Ted Turner reportedly considering making a rival $6-billion bid, Wall Street is betting that the price tag for CBS will go higher than the $81 a share Westinghouse has agreed to pay.

On Thursday, for the first time since CBS and Westinghouse announced their deal Aug. 1, CBS shares rose above the agreed buyout price--a sign that some traders expect the ultimate buyout price to be higher. CBS closed up $1.375 at $81.375 on the New York Stock Exchange.

Westinghouse will need $7.5 billion in financing to buy CBS for $81 a share, to assure itself of adequate working capital and to refinance existing bank lending agreements, the sources said.

Westinghouse declined to comment on how much bank financing has been committed so far, but spokesman Kit Newton said the effort is “going well, ahead of schedule.”

Asked for a response to rumors that Ted Turner would launch a competing bid for CBS, another Westinghouse spokesman, Roy Morrow, said: “Nothing will diminish our resolve to do whatever is necessary to close this deal and create this nation’s leading broadcast company.”