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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

              Monday, June 19, 2001, Vol. 2, No. 119


                            Headlines

* A U S T R I A *

LIBRO AG: Eurobooks Interested in Libro

* B E L G I U M *

LERNOUT & HAUSPIE: Posts BEF75BB Loss for 2000
SABENA SA: Halts Mineral Cargo Flights From Africa
XEIKON: Sees Loss in Coming Quarters

* C Z E C H   R E P U B L I C *

DAEWOO AVIA: GM Not Interested in Daewoo Unit
INVESTICNI A POSTOVNI: CSOB to Pay Kc9BB for IPB

* F R A N C E *

AIR LIBERTE: EasyJet Eyes Assets
AIR LIBERTE: Files for Bankruptcy

* G E R M A N Y *

EM.TV: Expects Double-Digit Growth in 2002
EM.TV: Watchdog Extends Sell-Off Date

* H U N G A R Y *

PHYOLA INDUSTRIAL: Court Appoints Detergent Company Liquidators
UKM REKARD: Goes Bankrupt Again

* I R E L A N D *

IRISH ISPAT: Shuts Down Operations

* N E T H E R L A N D S *

RING!ROSA PRODUCTS: Subsidiary Sale Complicates Rescue Plan

* S W I T Z E R L A N D *

SWISSAIR GROUP: Posts SFR400MM Loss

* U N I T E D   K I N G D O M *

BRITISH TELECOM: Raises 5.31BB Pounds From Share Sale
BRITISH TELECOM: Seeks New Financial Director Head
BRITISH TELECOM: To Sell More Assets
BRITISH TELECOM: Unit's Demerger Set for October
INDEPENDENT INSURANCE: Directors Conduct Probe at Independent
INDEPENDENT INSURANCE: Seeks for Buyer
MARKS & SPENCER: To Raise 400MM Pounds From Portfolio Sale
RAILTRACK GROUP: Operators to Grab Control From Railtrack
SCOOT.COM: Secures Funding Accord


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


LIBRO AG: Eurobooks Interested in Libro
---------------------------------------

Three new bidders have expressed their interest for the retailer
Libro, Der Standard & World Reporter in its Friday edition said.

The new parties are Swiss book retailer and publisher Eurobooks
Worldwide, Germany's Douglas group, as well as an anonymous group
of Austrian industrialists.

Eurobooks has bid 1 euro for 55% of Libro, although the company
said it would pay 170 million euros for Libro's restructuring
program and paying off its bank debt immediately.


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


LERNOUT & HAUSPIE: Posts BEF75BB Loss for 2000
----------------------------------------------

Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products NV posted a loss of 75 billion
Belgian francs for 2000, Dow Jones Newswires reported on Friday.
The loss was due mainly to amounts written off on financial fixed
assets.

The company will carry forward a loss of 78 billion Belgian
francs, including a 3.2 billion Belgian francs corrected loss
from the previous fiscal year.

With the discovery of accounting irregularities and fraudulent
transactions, and given the fact that almost all key employees
are no longer with the company, L&H had to restate accounts for
1998 and 1999 and the first half of 2000.

Shareholders of L&H will meet on June 29 to discuss the company's
restructuring plan, which proposes either selling the speech and
language technology assets or forming a new company from these
assets. L&H is operating under temporary bankruptcy protection in
Belgium and the U.S.


SABENA SA: Halts Mineral Cargo Flights From Africa
--------------------------------------------------

Sabena will suspend all mineral cargo flights from Belgium's
former colony Congo as a reaction to criticism that it was unduly
profiting from the ongoing conflict there, Dow Jones Newswires in
its Saturday edition said.

The United Nations is currently investigating whether coltan
minerals were being exported to fund the civil war in the central
African country.

According to a report released to the U.N.'s Security Council in
April, Sabena's cargo unit is involved in the transport of
minerals and other resources. Sabena has denied any involvement
in alleged plundering by various rebel factions.


XEIKON: Sees Loss in Coming Quarters
------------------------------------

Printing systems maker Xeikon, which reported a wider net loss in
the first quarter, expects to post a loss in the second and third
quarters and needs more money to stay in business, according to
Reuters' Friday report.

The 20-F filing with the U.S. Security and Exchange Commission
(SEC) said Xeikon has used up $23.8 million out of $30 million in
available credit by the end of March, and the remaining credit
and expected revenues would likely not be enough to fund its
operations for the next 12 months.

Xeikon blamed the losses on a lack of purchases from U.S. office
equipment maker photocopier giant Xerox, a delay in the roll-out
of CSP 320D, its first cut sheet digital color press, and the
integration of the digital printing systems business bought from
image technology group Agfa Gevaert.

Xeikon officials were not immediately available for comment.


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


DAEWOO AVIA: GM Not Interested in Daewoo Unit
---------------------------------------------

Korean-based Daewoo Motors is negotiating the sale of parts of
the company to General Motors, Czech A.M. in its June 14 edition
said.

However, the U.S. giant is interested only in cars and not in
utility vehicles like those manufactured at Daewoo Motors'
subsidiary Daewoo Avia.


INVESTICNI A POSTOVNI: CSOB to Pay Kc9BB for IPB
------------------------------------------------

CSOB will pay the state about Kc 9 billion for IPB within 30 days
from the signed restructuring plan, according to Czech A.M. in its
Friday edition.

Last year, IPB was put under forced administration as it
collapsed under a run on deposits. The bank lacked billions of
crowns in reserves.


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


AIR LIBERTE: EasyJet Eyes Assets
--------------------------------

Discount airline easyJet Plc may be interested to bid for part of
the assets of French carrier AOM/Air Liberte, CNN in its June 15
edition said.

EasyJet did not identify which assets it is interested in, but did say
that it wants to operate flights from Orly airport to safeguard hundreds
of AOM/Air Liberte staff, landing slots and equipment in its attempt to
dominate the European budget travel market.


AIR LIBERTE: Files for Bankruptcy
---------------------------------

France's regional airline group AOM/Air Liberte, which has been
struggling for months to secure new investment, filed for
bankruptcy on Friday, saying it could no longer carry on in its
current structure.

The Wall Street Journal reported that AOM/Air Liberte hoped the
move would give management the time needed to devise ways of
restructuring the group to overcome mounting financial problems.

AOM/Air Liberte Chairman Marc Rochet tried to persuade the
airline's main shareholders on Thursday to save the group from
bankruptcy with a rescue package of 3 billion francs. However,
Swissair Group said it would provide only 2 billion francs, while
its French partner Marine Wendel said it would not invest any
more in the company.


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


EM.TV: Expects Double-Digit Growth in 2002
------------------------------------------

EM.TV & Merchandising expects a double-digit sales growth from
2002 in its business of trading children's television rights,
Reuters in its June 14 edition said.

According to Chief Executive Thomas Haffa, he was also confident
the media rights company would find a solution for the sale of
its 45% stake in film rights dealer Tele Muenchen.

EM.TV has already proposed several possibilities to sell its Tele
Muenchen stake but still needs the approval of Tele Muenchen's
chief Herbert Kloiber.


EM.TV: Watchdog Extends Sell-Off Date
-------------------------------------

The German Cartel Office will block Kirch Gruppe's rescue of
EM.TV if the media group does not sell its 45% stake in
TeleMunchen Gruppe before the end of September, according to the
Financial Times on Sunday.

The competition watchdog extended the deadline, originally set
for the end of June, after it emerged the sale was being delayed
by a dispute between Kirch Gruppe and TMG majority shareholder
Herbert Kloiber, over the price of the stake.


=============
H U N G A R Y
=============


PHYOLA INDUSTRIAL: Court Appoints Detergent Company Liquidators
---------------------------------------------------------------

A Budapest court appointed Dr. Felso Enterprise Organizer and
Bankruptcy Consulting Kft to liquidate detergent base material
producer Phyola Industrial and Trade Kft, according to Friday's
edition of Hungary A.M.

Phyola declared bankruptcy in January when it accumulated a debt
of Ft 170 million.


UKM REKARD: Goes Bankrupt Again
-------------------------------

Engine manufacturer UKM Rekard Rt has filed bankrupt again,
following its 1992 bankruptcy, said Hungary A.M. in its June 14
edition. Gyula Fekete of Duna Audit Kft has been appointed to
manage the liquidation.

Duna will market UKM Rekard's assets of more than Ft 560 million
in open tenders. The assets include UKM's central premises,
machines, various reserves, and a 90% hotel stake.


=============
I R E L A N D
=============


IRISH ISPAT: Shuts Down Operations
----------------------------------

Citing continuing losses, on June 15 Irish Ispat Limited
announced the shutdown of its steelmaking operations
in Cork, Ireland, and the calling of a creditors meeting to
appoint a liquidator. The management of Irish Ispat
strived to implement certain cost reduction and production
increase proposals, but these did not seem to have sufficient
support from trade union officials.

Irish Ispat, which has approximately 400 employees, had
approximately IR36 million pounds due to creditors excluding
shareholders loan, current assets of IR32 million pounds and
fixed assets with a book value of IR17 million pounds.  Losses
have been running at an unsustainable level of IR750,000
pounds per month.


=====================
N E T H E R L A N D S
=====================


RING!ROSA PRODUCTS: Subsidiary Sale Complicates Rescue Plan
-----------------------------------------------------------

Negotiations about a restart of the computer company Ring have
met serious complications following the sale of the company's
French subsidiary Ring Service Centre, said De Telegraaf & World
Reporter in its Friday edition.

The subsidiary was sold to insulating materials manufacturer Logchies
Isolatiewerken.

Ring founder Job Bruggeman is said to be involved in Logchies
Isolatiewerken. Logchies' board member has declared to the
examining magistrate that Bruggeman, who also is a shareholder,
finances Logchies. Bruggeman was chairman of the Ring board from
1996 to 2000.


=====================
S W I T Z E R L A N D
=====================


SWISSAIR GROUP: Posts SFR400MM Loss
-----------------------------------

Swissair Group AG made a 400-million-Swiss-francs loss in the
first four months of this year.

AFX News in its Sunday report said that about half the losses
came from airline Swissair and the rest from flight-related
businesses.

Costs linked to the bankruptcy of AOM-Air Liberte amount to 1.5
billion Swiss franc.


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


BRITISH TELECOM: Raises 5.31BB Pounds From Share Sale
-----------------------------------------------------

British Telecommunications Plc has raised 5.31 billion pounds for
89.5% of its shares to cut debt that tripled to 27.9 billion pounds
last year, Bloomberg reported yesterday.

The company also offered existing investors the right to buy new
stock at 300 pence apiece, about a third less than its recent share
price.

Money managers Merrill Lynch & Co. and Cazenove & Co. will sell
the leftover stock.


BRITISH TELECOM: Seeks New Financial Director Head
--------------------------------------------------

British Telecommunications' mobile-phone arm BT Wireless is
looking for a new finance director as part of the effort to
strengthen its board ahead of the planned demerger, according to
The Sunday Times' report.

The company is looking for a replacement for Vivek Dev, who, as
claimed by an internal source, as more suited to being a
financial controller than finance director.


BRITISH TELECOM: To Sell More Assets
------------------------------------

British Telecom will sell its stakes in Bharti Cellular of India
and Rogers Wireless of Canada for 300 million pounds in a move to
cut its mounting debt, the Sunday Times reported.

BT's 5.9-billion-pound rights issue closed on Friday.

Besides the rights issue, BT has raised 3.75 billion pounds from
the sale of its interests in Japan Telecom and J-Phone, 1.05
billion pounds from its stake in Spain's Airtel, 350 million
pounds from Malaysia's Maxis Communications, 2.14 billion pounds
from Yellow Pages directories business Yell, and 2.3 billion
pounds from the sale of its British property portfolio last week.


BRITISH TELECOM: Unit's Demerger Set for October
------------------------------------------------

BT Wireless may be demerged from its parent company British
Telecommunications PLC as early as October, Dow Jones Newswires
in its Sunday edition reported.

BT's mobile-phone arm has a market value of between GBP17 billion
and GBP21 billion.


INDEPENDENT INSURANCE: Directors Conduct Probe at Independent
-------------------------------------------------------------

Non-executive directors at Independent Insurance have initiated
an inquiry into the role of the auditors and external actuaries
at the company, which was valued at 1 billion pounds but is now
almost worthless, the Sunday Times reported.

The directors wanted to find out why KPMG and Watson Wyatt
failed to uncover the full extent of the problems at Independent.
They said they did not receive information on Independent's true
financial position.

The Financial Services Authority, as well as the Department of
Trade and Industry and the Serious Fraud Office, will also
examine the roles of KPMG and Watson Wyatt in failing to spot and
assess losses at the insurer.


INDEPENDENT INSURANCE: Seeks for Buyer
--------------------------------------

Independent Insurance is looking for a buyer who can take over
part or all of its business, according to a report in Friday's BBC
News.

The move comes after an attempt to raise 180 million pounds
failed because of revelations from the Friday edition of the
Financial Times newspaper that the company is facing
unquantifiable losses.

Mark Trayhorn, partner in external actuary Watson Wyatt, in his
letter to the insurer's board cited that many claims from
customers have not been entered into the accounting system.
Nobody, not even the company's own directors, knows how large its
liabilities are.

Independent is working hard to ascertain the extent of its
existing and potential liabilities.


MARKS & SPENCER: To Raise 400MM Pounds From Portfolio Sale
----------------------------------------------------------

Retailer Marks & Spencer and its financial adviser Morgan Stanley
have examined options to raise 400 million pounds from its
property estates, according to a report in the Sunday Times.

The sale and leaseback of its property is seen as the preferred
plan. Healey & Baker is M&S' property adviser.

M&S has been encouraged by strong investor interest in a 600-
million-pound portfolio of Woolworths stores that has been put on
the market by Kingfisher. Entrepreneur Leo Neo and the wealthy
Livingstone brothers have reached the final short list.

M&S could also raise up to 200 million pounds from the sale of
its head office in London's Baker Street. The group decided to
leave the site and move to a new building in Paddington.


RAILTRACK GROUP: Operators to Grab Control From Railtrack
---------------------------------------------------------

National Express, Britain's leading train operating companies
(Tocs), Virgin Rail and Stagecoach are in talks with the
Association of Train Operating Companies (Atoc) over a deal that
could relieve Railtrack of its track-maintenance and signaling
activities.

The Sunday Times reported that National Express is keen to run
track on its ScotRail, Wales & West and c2c franchises, while
Virgin wants to take control of tracks on its Cross Country and
North West services. Stagecoach is attempting to manage its South
West Trains franchise.

Rail regulator Tom Winsor is believed to signal plans for an
independent body to oversee all safety aspects of the network.


SCOOT.COM: Secures Funding Accord
---------------------------------

The loss-making online directory service Scoot.com has secured an
agreement from a group of private investors to inject 25 million
pounds into the business, according to the Financial Times'
report Sunday.

The cash injection, which comes as Scoot continues to seek a
strategic partner or a trade sale, can give Scoot more room for
maneuver in the discussions. A separate sale of Loot at about 60
million to 70 million pounds, is however seen as a last resort.
Loot, the classified advertising business, is regarded as Scoot's
best asset.

Details of the funding could come on June 28, when Scoot reports
its first-quarter results.

Auditors Arthur Andersen handles the potential financing, while
Merrill Lynch has been appointed to review Scoot's strategic
options. Scoot declined to comment.

                                   ***********

      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,
Salve M. Mordeno and Ma. Cristina D. Pernites, Editors.

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

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