Nearly 300 shareholders who put $5 million into Staples Holdings Ltd have almost certainly lost their investment after it was announced on Friday the company was de-listed from the Bermuda Stock Exchange.

There are fears that once the liquidators of the company, which was only started four years ago, pay back debts to the banks there will be nothing left for investors.

The BSX announcement to cancel the company's listings was made after they had been contacted by the company's liquidators.

It was also revealed that the directors of the company have resigned and the company wound up.

Trading in shares of the company were suspended in July and according to the stock exchange, the company was dissolved several months ago as the result of rising debt caused by investments which went wrong.

The company's main profit making bodies, the office supplier Staples Ltd and Atlantic Medical International, were sold to businessman Fernance Perry, chairman of the Bermuda Broadcasting Company in a deal in July this year.

Now the liquidators, Deloitte and Touche, will pay the company's debts back to the bank. If there is anything left, it will be distributed to the shareholders.

In May this year some 290 investors were warned they could lose the $5 million they had invested in the company.

The shareholders range from people who put $1,000 in the company to those who invested $348,000.

At the time the shareholders were questioning what went wrong in the company that held the largest market share in the office supply business in Bermuda and was taking in some $13 million in revenues.

The company endured a 19 percent drop in sales for the first half of its fiscal year to September 30, 1998, and declared a six-month loss of $236,019 before warning shareholders to expect further losses.

According to their annual report, Staples Holdings Ltd owed about $3.32 million in short and long-term loans to the Bank of Bermuda and the Bank of N.

T. Butterfield at September 30.

In March the book value of the company was valued at $2 million. Although it is not known what Mr. Perry paid for the profitable parts of the company, it would not be enough to cover the debt completely.

A statement released by BSX said: "The exchange has also been informed by the company (the liquidators) that the Supreme Court of Bermuda has approved petitions for winding up filed by creditors of the company on 29 September, 1999 and that all directors of the company and the company's secretary, have submitted their resignations.'' The BSX said it was de-listing the company because "the exchange considers that the issuer does not have sufficient level of operations of sufficient assets to warrant the continued listing of its securities on the exchange''.