A team of investigators is to spend more than two months looking into how Staples Holdings Ltd lost such vast amounts of money.

The team of liquidators at Deloitte and Touche have begun their investigations of the workings of the company after being appointed by the courts last week.

The accountants confirmed that there is little chance of the almost 300 investors getting any of their $5 million back.

"We are investigating what happened. It is our statutory duty to do so,'' said Mark Smith one of the liquidators on the team, who were appointed by the court.

He added: "We will find out what happened to the company and why the company is insolvent. We will gather in the assets and work out who the company owes money to and any assets will be sold and the money used in payment.

"It is not likely to that in these circumstances there will be any money left over for the shareholders.'' On Monday The Royal Gazette revealed that the company had been de-listed from the Bermuda Stock Exchange.

Trading in shares of the company were suspended in July and 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 body, the office supplier Staples Ltd was sold to businessman Fernance Perry, chairman of the Bermuda Broadcasting Co closed in a deal in July this year.

This part of the company was used as security on a bank loan, and was sold off to re-pay this loan. The asset left for Deloitte and Touche to sell on is Atlantic Medical International.

"We will be selling this off for the best price. We will then report to the creditors, shareholders and the court.

"Currently we are in the investigation stage. We have to identify the creditors and find out what happened and determine the assets.'' The cash received from the sale will be used to pay the company's debtors.

Normally if there were anything left it would be distributed to the shareholders, but this now seems near impossible. 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 from $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 loses.

According to their annual report Staples Holding 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.