That is the view of joint provisional liquidators Kempe & Whittle Ltd., who have organised creditors meetings for the Televest companies at Number One Shed on Monday.

Kempe & Whittle is proposing "a scheme of arrangement'' to avoid costly litigation between and among about 750 creditors of Televest Ltd. and its related companies.

"It's our recommendation to the creditors of all of the companies of the entire group that the legal ramifications of winding up these companies separately and determining the rights of each against the other will be so complex and costly that we believe the whole lot should be treated as a conglomerate,'' joint provisional liquidator Mr. Charles Kempe told The Royal Gazette yesterday.

"This would enable unresolved issues to be compromised in some manner agreed by all parties, and save prolonged and expensive litigation,'' Mr. Kempe and his colleague Mr. Gil Tucker said in a letter to creditors.

"If a scheme of arrangement could be worked out, the funds currently collected by the provisional liquidators could be distributed in the short term, and further distributions would be made as funds were collected.'' Such a scheme would guarantee that about 500 preferred shareholders of Televest -- who collectively are owed about $8.3 million -- would at least recoup part of their investments, he said.

The five Televest companies -- which operated the Signature and Travel Club credit cards and a cheque authorisation service for merchants -- were recently declared insolvent after being placed in provisional liquidation in December.

At Monday's meeting, it is expected a resolution will be passed to appoint a permanent liquidator and a Committee of Inspection, with creditors' representation, to work with the liquidator.

In the letter to creditors, Mr. Kempe and Mr. Tucker warned of possible ramifications if the five Televest companies were treated separately.

Televest, which promised annual returns of seven to nine percent on purchases of preferred shares, had been insolvent "for some time,'' the letter said.

"It could well be that it was insolvent at a time when dividends were paid to preference shareholders or redemptions made. Such transactions can only occur when there is sufficient capital and surplus to fund them, and this may not have been the case.

"The joint provisional liquidators believe that further investigation could reveal that dividends paid previously, and shareholder redemptions paid out, should by law be clawed back to the company. This investigation and clawback could be very expensive indeed.'' The provisional liquidators said they had collected about $1.6 million in Telecheck receivables on top of the $190,000 in cash they took over on appointment. There were still about $6.4 million in other accounts receivable, but collection of much of that amount was doubtful, they said.