Lenders Ready to Foreclose on Bonded Motors

Lenders are foreclosing this week on Bonded Motors Inc., an ailing auto engine remanufacturer based near South-Central Los Angeles, executives said Wednesday.

Comerica Bank will take over and sell remaining assets at Bonded’s offices and at a manufacturing plant in Macon, Ga., after the company failed to get last-minute short-term loans, said Dan Belling, Bonded’s vice president of sales.

Most of the company’s national work force of 475 was cut in recent months, and it had lost its chief financial officer and several company directors since March.

About 25 employees remained at Bonded’s Los Angeles offices as of Wednesday.

Bonded, which rebuilt and sold car engines for nearly 1,500 domestic and Japanese models, posted per-share losses in three of last year’s four quarters.

The company’s sales surged in early 1998, when Genuine Parts/NAPA, a member of the National Automotive Parts Assn., became its major customer. But Bonded couldn’t meet the demand, and sank under overtime expenses and increased warranty costs on defective merchandise, Belling said.

For the year, Bonded had a net loss of $3.8 million, or $1.23 per share, compared with a net loss of $1.3 million, or 42 cents, in 1998.

Founded in 1971, Bonded went public in 1996 at $5.88 a share. The stock closed unchanged Wednesday at 25 cents a share on the OTC Bulletin Board.