and Televest Ltd. were ordered wound up yesterday by the Supreme Court.

Thousands of Signature credit cards were not being honoured and thousands of outstanding shares in Televest could not be redeemed, senior partner Mr.

Charles Kempe of Kempe and Whittle told The Royal Gazette .

Mr. Kempe, who along with Mr. Gil Tucker was named a joint provisional liquidator, said investors would get at least some of their money back.

"They will make a recovery,'' Mr. Kempe said of those attracted to Televest shares by guaranteed yields three times as high as those banks offered.

"Whether or not it will be a complete recovery or a partial recovery, I cannot address.'' There was no evidence that investments in Televest, often described as deposits, were insured, Mr. Kempe said. Yesterday, investors showed "more annoyance and distress than panic,'' he said.

The liquidations were forced by United Kingdom creditors that included Sarnia Mutual Investments Ltd. of Guernsey in the Channel Islands.

They were claiming debts totalling at least several hundred thousand dollars, all related to transactions that occurred between 1985 and 1988, Mr. Kempe said.

Sarnia Mutual was a major shareholder in CTRAK Ltd. of Bermuda, a company described as dormant. CTRAK was also ordered wound up, as was TBL Ltd., another dormant local company.

Along with the UK creditors, shareholders of CTRAK and TBL had petitioned the Supreme Court for the liquidations.

In addition to operating the Signature credit card, Telecheck offers a cheque approval service to stores like the MarketPlace. It and Televest were the brainchildren of brothers Mr. Richard Burns and Mr. Thomas Burns, who owned most of their common shares.

Their guaranteed returns for purchases of preferred shares in Televest -- initially nine percent and recently reduced to 81 percent -- lured investors away from local banks. The companies' failures were likely to spur calls for greater controls, a source in the investment community said yesterday.

Finance Minister the Hon. David Saul said Government had placed an inspector in the companies on Tuesday and he wanted to "wait and see what the facts are.'' Dr. Saul stressed that neither company was a financial institution. "This is a private company -- private companies come and go,'' he said. The Minister understood the liquidations were caused due to "a company associated with Televest getting into trouble in the UK''.

The Court's action came before rumours had spread, taking most of Bermuda by surprise. Reportedly, Mr. Richard Burns only learned on Friday of the petition by UK creditors and meetings over the weekend failed to prevent the liquidation.

Mr. Kempe said he and Mr. Tucker were examining the companies "with a view to determining actions to be taken to preserve and enhance (their) assets and liability.'' The liquidators would report to the Supreme Court in due course, he said.

Among issues to be decided was whether parts of the businesses, like the credit card, could be continued or reconstituted, he said. A Telecheck hearing set for Supreme Court this morning was procedural and would be adjourned, he said.

Although Televest had an ongoing share offering and the preferred shares were redeemable upon notice. "the orders of the court trigger the suspension of payments to investors and creditors''.

Televest was set up in 1989 to provide financing for Telecheck. It raised about $1 million through a share offering the first year, and about double that in 1990. Mr. Kempe would not state the total value of outstanding shares.

When Signature cardholders or other Telecheck customers purchased goods or services, the "bill'' was passed electronically to Telecheck computers within seconds and the merchant was paid the following day.

Televest then bought the "bill'' from Telecheck at a discount, making a profit when it collected the full account. Televest also paid fees back to Telecheck, whose staff collected the accounts.

Telecheck started as a cheque approval system in 1986 and briefly moved into collection of other accounts receivable. The Signature card was introduced in 1988.