Brunswick bids $48 million to buy Olympic Boat Centers

Yacht and motorboat manufacturer Brunswick has offered to buy Redmond-based Olympic Boat Centers out of bankruptcy for $48 million, but the retailer's unsecured creditors might see little or no money if that bid prevails.

Olympic Boat and its affiliates run 20 dealerships from British Columbia to California, making it "one of the largest, if not the largest, dealership in the world" for Brunswick, according to court papers filed in Woodland Hills, Calif., where Olympic filed for Chapter 11 protection last month.

On Wednesday, 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, said David Shemano, a Los Angeles attorney representing Olympic's unsecured creditors. Brunswick, whose brands include Bayliner, Maxum, Meridian and Mercury Marine, already owns 12 percent of Olympic Boat's parent company. The remainder is mostly owned by private-equity firm The Riverside Co., of Cleveland, which bought majority control of Olympic in 1998 and launched an expansion push.

The $48 million offer, detailed in a motion filed by Olympic's attorneys last week, 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.

He called Brunswick's offer "less than adequate."

Olympic reported assets between $10 million and $50 million and debts between $50 million and $100 million.