Brunswick makes offer for West Coast dealer

Posted on 26 August 2008

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Brunswick Corp. has offered to buy Redmond, Wash.-based Olympic Boat Centers out of bankruptcy for $48 million, The Seattle Times reports.

Olympic Boat and its affiliates run 20 dealerships from British Columbia to California.

This week, a bankruptcy-court judge is expected to schedule a Sept. 23 auction of Olympic's assets and spell out procedures for other bidders to compete with the Brunswick proposal, David Shemano, a Los Angeles attorney representing Olympic's unsecured creditors, told the newspaper.

Brunswick already owns 12 percent of Olympic Boat's parent company. The remainder is mostly owned by private-equity firm The Riverside Co., of Cleveland.

The $48 million offer would provide $47 million to secured creditor GE Commercial Distribution Finance. But it would leave less than $1 million for bankruptcy costs and payments to other creditors, Shemano wrote in a court filing.

Olympic reported assets between $10 million and $50 million and debts between $50 million and $100 million, The Seattle Times reports.