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         T R O U B L E D   C O M P A N Y   R E P O R T E R

                           E U R O P E

              Friday, May 18, 2001, Vol. 2, No. 98


                            Headlines

* B E L G I U M *

LERNOUT & HAUSPIE:  Launches Speech Recognition Product
LERNOUT & HAUSPIE:  Announces Developer Agreement With TLM

* C Z E C H   R E P U B L I C *

KRALOVOPOLSKA:  Court Approves Settlement With Creditors

* F R A N C E *

INTERCALL:  Intercall Shares to Resume Trade

* G E R M A N Y *

EDEL MUSIC:  Financial Situation Is Perilous
PHILIPP HOLZMANN:  Denies Report on Sale
TELEGATE AG:  First Quarter Net Loss Widens

* L U X E M B O U R G *

CLEARSTREAM:  Clearstream CEO Steps Down

* N O R W A Y *

ENITEL AS:  Posts Pretax Loss of 246.1 Million Kroner

* R U S S I A *

MEDIA-MOST:  Moscow Considers Suggestions on Debt Repayment

* S P A I N *

SINTEL:  Applies for Bankruptcy
SINTEL:  Starts Political Negotiations

* U N I T E D   K I N G D O M *

CAMMEL LAIRD:  Shipbuilder to Cut More Jobs
GLOBALNET FINANCIAL:  CEO Announces Further Restructuring
RED STAR:  Parcel Firm Closes UK Offices


=============
B E L G I U M
=============


LERNOUT & HAUSPIE:  Launches Speech Recognition Product
-------------------------------------------------------
Business Wire  May 16, 2001


L&H Automotive Solutions Group, a business unit of Lernout &
Hauspie Speech Products NV (Nasdaq Europe: LHSP; OTC: LHSPQ)
(`L&H' or `the Company'), a world leader in speech and language
technology, products and services, announced that it has
introduced Distributed Speech Recognition (DSR) technology to the
automotive market. DSR greatly enhances the performance of mobile
communications devices and primarily addresses the automotive
market, giving drivers greater access to information and
transaction services via wireless systems such as telematics.

L&H's client-server based DSR allows mobile devices themselves,
such as vehicle-based GSM communications devices, to recognize
spoken commands. These commands are then converted into digital
data and transmitted via a wireless link to a server, where
processing is completed or the desired information, such as email
messages, is returned. DSR employs L&H's unique noise-robust data
processing modules, which ensure a high level of accuracy in
recognizing voice commands, and offers two distinct benefits:

- No loss of information as speech pre-processing and data
compression occur at the source;

- The processing of the user's request takes place on the server
and therefore requires less processing power from the mobile
device.

Both of these advantages give users of mobile devices access to a
broader range of information and wireless-based services, with
the added benefit of lower transmission costs due to the reduced
airtime required when using DSR.

L&H's DSR technology can be supported by a vast array of today's
mobile devices, including PDAs, hybrid PIM telephones, mobile
phone handsets, telematic systems, as well as remote-controlled
devices for the home and industry. With the introduction of DSR,
a greater number of telematic-based services in particular, such
as mobile commerce and enhanced emergency vehicle assistance,
will be more readily available to consumers.

Commenting on DSR, Scott Pyles, vice president of sales and
marketing at L&H Automotive Solutions Group, said: "Safety and
convenience for the driver are the primary focus of automakers
with respect to automotive products and services. Distributed
Speech Recognition will allow more automakers, mobile device
manufacturers, and service providers to offer drivers the safety
and convenience of a speech recognition interface. DSR-based
interfaces give greater access to the wireless information and
services that today's drivers are increasingly demanding. In
addition to lowering operating costs, DSR allows drivers to use
their mobile devices without taking their eyes off the road or
removing their hands from the steering wheel. Overall, DSR gives
automobile owners a richer and safer driving experience." Mr.
Pyles added, "DSR is one of many examples of L&H's ongoing
commitment to deliver proven, progressive speech technologies to
our automotive customers and further develop the global market
for speech technology in the automotive sector."


LERNOUT & HAUSPIE:  Announces Developer Agreement With TLM
--------------------------------------------------------
Nasdaq Press Release  May 16, 2001


Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products NV (EASDAQ: LHSP; OTC: LHSPQ)
(`L&H'),a world leader in speech and language technology, products
and services, announced it has signed a developer agreement with
TLM Com, a French developer of Internet and speech solutions for
different markets such as banking, insurance and retail. The
integration of the award-winning L&H Realspeak speech synthesis
software and L&H ASR 1500 speech recognition engine with TLM Com's
speech server (TLM NT Vox) provides developers with a functional,
robust and open call center
architecture.

The TLM NT Vox platform allows call centers to handle requests
from different types of media, such as fax, voice, WAP, Telephone
and e-mail. The dialogue server automates the handling of
frequently reoccurring calls and automatically routes them to the
agent. L&H ASR 1500 (French) and L&H Realspeak (French) are
central to the TLM Com solution. Speech recognition allows the
system to understand customer queries and commands, filtering the
incoming calls. When combined with L&H's text-to-speech technology
L&H Realspeak an interactive and natural dialogue system can be
established, facilitating two-way communication. TLM Com recently
signed an agreement for the speech server TLM NT Vox with the
insurance company MCVPAP (Mutuelle Complementaire de la ville de
Paris et des Administrations publiques).

Wanderlei Dos Santos, Director of production and information
systems at MCVPAP says: "After installation of the TLM NT Vox
server with L&H technologies we expect that organizations
deploying the solution will be able to recover up to 30 % of calls
that would have been previously lost. This will undoubtedly enable
us to deliver a more efficient service to our clients ensuring
they are routed swiftly to the correct
agent or call handler."

L&H and TLM Com will demonstrate their combined technologies
during the call center tradeshow SECA 2001, taking place from 16th
till 18th May in Paris, France. L&H will also show Dictaphone
Freedom QMS, its quality monitoring system for call centers, for
the first time for the French language.

TLM com is based in Paris, France. The company specialises in the
development, creation and commercialisation of communication
software using multiple media, such as CTI, IVR (Interactive Voice
Response), unified messaging, speech recognition, intra and
internet, WAP and SMS, Videotext and faxservers.


===========================
C Z E C H   R E P U B L I C
============================


KRALOVOPOLSKA:  Court Approves Settlement With Creditors
--------------------------------------------------------

The regional court in Brno on Monday approved the third proposal
for settlement with Kralovopolska firm creditors, named Roman
Snyrch as settlement administrator and fixed the date of
settlement proceedings on June 25-28, 2001, Czech News Agency
said in its May 14 edition.

"The total value of claims will reach almost 4 billion korunas,"
Kralovopolska CEO Milan Rada told CTK, adding that the company
submitted the third composition proposal on Feb 21.


===========
F R A N C E
===========


INTERCALL:  Intercall Shares to Resume Trade
--------------------------------------------

Shares in troubled French telecom group Intercall will resume
trade on May 18, 2001, Euronext Paris reported on Wednesday.

The company's shares have been suspended since January 4, 2001,
when they closed at 2.46 euros.

Intercall, which specializes in prepaid phone cards is under
legal protection from creditors, reported a first quarter sales
of 10.40 million euros versus 12.50 million in the same quarter
last year. Pro-forma sales decreased 1.07 percent from 10.51
million euros.

French Internet service provider Liberty Surf owned by Italy's
Tiscali said it owned 66 percent of Intercall after a capital
increase and will bid for the rest.


=============
G E R M A N Y
=============


EDEL MUSIC:  Financial Situation Is Perilous
-----------------------------------------------

Edel Music AG revealed on Wednesday after the annual general
shareholders meeting that the music publisher company does not
have enough liquidity to secure its operations beyond the end of
2001, Handelsblatt said in its May 16 report.

Edel Music has total banking obligations of 736 million euros in
2000. The group has forecast earnings before interest and taxes
of 37.1 million euros for the 2001 calendar-year period. Its
full-year 2000 ebit was 2.5 million euros.

The company's major shareholder Haentjes who owns 71.2 percent
stake of the firm had pledged a part of his stake as security
against credits that have already been issued and has issued
commitments that he will not sell any of his shares. He also
stood as guarantor to loan worth 152.5 million euros.


PHILIPP HOLZMANN:  Denies Report on Sale
----------------------------------------

French construction company Vinci and German builder Philipp
Holzmann on Wednesday denied a press report that Vinci was
interested in buying the ailing German group, AFX News said in
its May 16 edition.

"That's not correct," company spokeswoman Petra Rob said, adding
that no takeover talks are taking place and there are as yet no
concrete plans.

Despite a restructuring program causing thousands of layoffs, the
company reported a net loss of 156 million marks ($70.05 million)
last year, Reuters reported Wednesday.


TELEGATE AG:  First Quarter Net Loss Widens
-------------------------------------------

German provider of telephone directory services Telegate AG
reported a first quarter net loss of 14.9 million marks from a
loss of 3.27 million marks in the same period in 2000, AFX News
said Wednesday.

EBITDA fell to a loss of 12.9 million marks from a profit of 0.06
million.

The company intends to improve the number of calls handled in
Germany this year through product extensions and strategic
collaborations. It expects to sign cooperation agreements in UK
and Spain in the near future, the company said.


===================
L U X E M B O U R G
===================


CLEARSTREAM:  Clearstream CEO Steps Down
----------------------------------------

Clearstream confirmed Wednesday that Andre Lussi has been
temporarily suspended as chief executive and president pending
the result of a judicial investigation into the clearance and
settlement house company, AP Online said Wednesday.

The Luxembourg prosecutor is investigating Deutsche Boerse AG's
50 percent-owned clearance arm over allegations of money
laundering raised in a book by a former Luxembourg banker.

Clearstream has appointed Andre Roelants to the post of interim
CEO.

"We are co-operating in every way possible to ensure this
investigation is completed as quickly and effectively as
possible," Roelants said.


===========
N O R W A Y
===========


ENITEL AS:  Posts Pretax Loss of 246.1 Million Kroner
-----------------------------------------------------

Telecom group Enitel AS reported a first-quarter pretax loss of
246.1 million kroner versus 270.7 million kroner in 2000, the
Wall Street Journal said Wednesday.

The company expects to profit in 2003 following a restructuring.
Chief executive Oeyvind Hauge said the firm aims to cut costs
through a restructuring after a recent share issue, which brought
the company 700 million kroner in fresh capital.

Operating loss for the latest quarter rose to 160 million kroner
against 109 million kroner a year earlier, while operating
revenue increase 216 million kroner to 372 million kroner.


===========
R U S S I A
===========


MEDIA-MOST:  Moscow Considers Suggestions on Debt Repayment
-----------------------------------------------------------

The Moscow committee of municipal loans will consider suggestions
of Media-Most holding in the pre-term repayment of its debt worth
6 billion rubles ($207 million) by the end of this week,
RosBusiness Consulting reported Wednesday.

The chairman of the committee Sergey Pakhomov reported that the
debt of Most-Bank to the Moscow government was restructured into
bills of exchange and transferred to the Moscow loan committee.

The company repaid its first tranche of bills worth $7.6 million
at the end of March 2001, but was not able to repay the second
tranche. Instead, it proposed a pre-term repayment of the whole
debt by assets of the holding.

The chairman said the loan committee has already receive a list
of assets of Media-Most, including securities and real estate to
be used for repayment of debts.


=========
S P A I N
=========


SINTEL:  Applies for Bankruptcy
-------------------------------

Spanish telecommunications solutions provider Sintel has applied
to a Madrid court to be declared bankrupt with debts of over
20,000 million pesetas, according to El Pais on Tuesday. The firm
suspended payments last June. The company owes its main creditor
Telefonica 3,000 million pesetas. It owes the national insurance
body Seguridad Social and the treasury more than 2,000 million
pesetas.

The company has been involved in a serious industrial dispute
since February 2000, with four months' unpaid wages and threats
of redundancies and suspension of payments. Today it still owes
its staff ten months' wages. The owner Carlos Gila tried to sell
the company to Dragados, Acciona and Villar Mir but with no
success.


SINTEL:  Starts Political Negotiations
--------------------------------------

Spanish government representatives had met with Sintel and unions
on Wednesday tried to resolve the problems of the company that
had suspended payments, the May 16 edition of Expansion & World
Reporter said.

Sources from the CC OO unions said the company aims to seek an
industrial partner, and if this is not successful, it hopes to
enable the workers to get jobs in Spanish telephony group
Telefonica, Sintel's former parent company.

Sintel filed for bankruptcy with a deficit of 120 million euros.


===========================
U N I T E D   K I N G D O M
===========================


CAMMEL LAIRD:  Shipbuilder to Cut More Jobs
-------------------------------------------

Struggling shipbuilder Cammell Laird PLC is to cut a further 248
jobs in the coming weeks, Press Association said in its May 16
report.

Receivers PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) hope to sell the firm,
which has yards in Birkenhead and Tyneside.

The company went into receivership last month. It was announced
320 jobs would go and its Teesside yard would shut down.


GLOBALNET FINANCIAL:  CEO Announces Further Restructuring
---------------------------------------------------------

Chief Executive Officer of Globalnetfinacial.com Tom Hodgson
commented in a company press release:

"Further restructuring of the business is being implemented
during the second quarter to significantly reduce cash burn and
reflect the very difficult market conditions for internet
advertising and trading activity in the off line and on line
brokerage business.

The cost base for the business is still too high compared to our
revenues, and therefore further streamlining of operating
expenses will take place during the current quarter in most areas
of the business, but particularly in the media division where
advertising revenues have softened.

Globalnet Financial reported a first quarter loss of $23.6
million compared to a loss of $5.8 million in first quarter 2000.  
This compares to a loss of $25.5 million in the fourth quarter of
2000.  The improvement from the fourth quarter 2000 reflects a
reduction in operating expenses and losses in unconsolidated
companies, offset by a one off charge relating to the termination
of an office facility in New York and restructuring costs.


RED STAR:  Parcel Firm Closes UK Offices
----------------------------------------

Parcel company Red Star Parcels will shut down its UK offices
with the loss of 260 jobs, according to Press Association on
Wednesday.

The Redundancies will take effect on May 25, 2001 the Rail
Maritime and Transport union said.

"After six years of privatization, our members have been given
just a few days notice to quit their jobs," said assistant
general secretary Bob Crow.

                                  ***********
       
      S U B S C R I P T I O N   I N F O R M A T I O N

Troubled Company Reporter -- Europe is a daily newsletter co-
published by Bankruptcy Creditors' Service, Inc., Trenton, NJ
USA, and Beard Group, Inc., Washington, DC USA. Kimberly MacAdam,
and Ma. Cristina D. Pernites, Editors.

Copyright 2001.  All rights reserved.  ISSN 1529-2754.

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