ROANOKE TIMES 

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, June 21, 1990                   TAG: 9006210141
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: GEORGE KEGLEY BUSINESS EDITOR
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

EX-MANAGER MAKES BID FOR NAUTILUS

Dan P. Baldwin, former president of Nautilus Sports/Medical Industry, has signed an agreement to buy the company. But a bankruptcy judge left the buyout open until July 3 in case a better deal is found.

Baldwin, backed by an unidentified Florida investor, has offered $14.4 million for the nationally known maker of exercise equipment.

The company's only plant is at Independence. Its offices are in Dallas where the owner, Travis Ward, lives.

Potential buyers have been looking Nautilus over for months, and the field has been narrowed "to 40 tire-kickers and three real" prospects, said L.E. Creel, Nautilus lawyer from Dallas, after a hearing in Bankruptcy Court in Roanoke on Wednesday.

The Baldwin offer is important because it is the only one for cash, Creel said. The proposed transaction, pending approval by Bankruptcy Judge H. Clyde Pearson, is for $13.8 million in cash and assumption of $600,000 in debt, he said.

Baldwin said he is pleased with Pearson's decision to set an early cutoff date for offers. "We need to move forward quickly. The company needs attention and management," he said.

Baldwin, who expects to be president and chief executive officer, built the Independence plant in the 1970s and resigned as plant manager four years ago. The company started in Florida in 1970.

Nautilus has lost some share of the market "because of inattention, company mismanagement and other problems," Baldwin said after the hearing.

The company filed for reorganization in February, reporting debt of $38.6 million and assets of $27.3 million.

"Nobody in the company has knowledge of the business . . . They're not familiar with research and development," he said.

Employment at the Independence plant is down to 215 and Baldwin said he wants to build it back to 600 workers, the peak reached in 1984.

"Time is critical. We need to get the company back on its feet. Bankruptcy is not helping the business," Baldwin said.

Baldwin, once a Federal Aviation Administration examiner who licensed a thousand pilots, lives at Galax.

Creel said Nautilus is anxious to complete the sale "because the company is not getting any stronger." Prospects' offers have dropped from $25 million to $18 million to $14 million, "not a good trend."

Lawyers argued about a disclosure statement submitted to the court, and Pearson ordered a modified statement containing more information. He will act on that statement at the July hearing.

Nautilus said it sought bankruptcy court protection because it fell behind in payments to two major creditors, Meritor Savings Bank and Prudential Insurance Co. They claim about $24 million of the company's debt.

More than 100 unsecured creditors say Nautilus owes them about $2.6 million.

Under the Baldwin offer, Ward would receive $2 million in cash and property. 


 by CNB