for their first dividend more than three years after it went bust, have been told they will receive hardly anything.

One of the smallest creditors, painting contractor Mr. Reggie Semos, has been banking on a dividend to help him through the recession. He is owed $10,000 by Bexco.

"It's been a heck of a long time and we are still in no sight of being paid anything,'' Mr. Semos told The Royal Gazette .

"The slowness of the whole thing is particularly devastating for small firms like my own where cash flow is vital.'' But Kempe and Whittle's Ms Janice Burns, who is helping to liquidate the company, said yesterday: "We hope to pay the first and final dividend by the end of the year. But, to be quite honest, it's not going to amount to an awful lot.'' She added: "I'm sympathetic to their position but really there was not enough money left over them to be paid a decent dividend once Government had been paid.'' Delays in paying out a dividend had largely been caused by legal action involving Government and Island Press, she said.

The Court of Appeal last year overturned a previous court decision in Bexco's favour limiting the amount of money owed to Government as a preferred creditor to just $2,500.

Instead, the court said Government was entitled to a sum of approximately $150,000 for unpaid taxes and fees, which left little left to be shared among unsecured creditors.

Bexco was more fortunate in its action to recover $150,000 from Island Press.

Ms Burns said "a lot, but not all'' of this money had been recovered and said the matter might still be subject to further court action.

Bexco-in liquidation's current financial position is pretty much as it was at the time of the last letter from the liquidators to creditors a year ago.

Kempe and Whittle indicated then there was likely to be approximately $346,301 to share between creditors who are collectively claiming $2.7 million, not all of which has been admitted.

The estimated total asset figure of $346,301 assumed full recovery of the amount Bexco claimed was due from Island Press and did not include further costs of the liquidation.

Mr. Henry Kaye, controller with Bexco creditor SAL, said yesterday: "Most of us knew a long, long time ago that there was not going to be any money available for the creditors. That's pretty well definite.

"Everyone reconciled themselves to the fact then that they weren't going to get anything.'' But Mr. Semos, who as a small creditor has not been in the thick of the liquidation, said: "I had been hoping to receive something. It all helps with the economy as bad as it is.

"Three years seems to me to be a ridiculously long time to wait and still not be paid.'' Bexco was one of Bermuda's largest construction firms when it went bust in March, 1989, just before the end of one of the biggest building booms in the Island's history.