one of its provisional liquidators said yesterday.

Mr. Charles Kempe of Kempe & Whittle painted a bleak picture of the Televest group and said he had abandoned the idea of selling the credit card operation or other parts of the business as going concerns.

"There are a number of things that are clear,'' he told The Royal Gazette .

"One, Televest is insolvent.

"Two, there is a very high likelihood it is going to be wound up.'' Mr.

Kempe, who along with Mr. Gil Tucker was appointed a joint provisional liquidator by the Supreme Court, said the Televest group "was running at a loss.'' "It is not viewed as a feasible proposition to sell the principal operations, which were loss-making. We are still examining some aspects of some of the lesser elements.'' Mr. Kempe said the group had assets of about $5 million after allowances for bad debts, mostly in the form of receivables.

There was $8.3 million due to preference shareholders and $3.8 million due to Sarnia Mutual Investments Ltd. of the Channel Islands and its affiliates, he said.

Since 1985, the Televest group had "absorbed'' about $12 million, of which there was about $5 million remaining, he said.

Operating losses and bad debts on the credit card business, unprofitable investments in the Caribbean, large salaries paid to the three principal directors, loans to the directors which might not be recoverable, and amounts paid in dividends and interest to Sarnia and affiliates and to preference shareholders accounted for the difference between the two figures, he said.

Asked if it was now certain that owners of preferred Televest shares would lose money, Mr. Kempe said: "It all depends on whether there are other assets that can be found.'' There were investments in the Caribbean but "I don't know whether there are other assets'', he said.

Three Televest directors are opposing the petition to wind up the company.

Their lawyer, Mr. Julian Hall, said the company was solvent and had virtually no debts.