GROUP of stevedoring firms in Rotterdam are to negotiate buying Bell Lines' facilities at the Dutch port. It is believed that the deal could go through within a couple of weeks.

Bell Lines is expected to be put into liquidation this morning, following the dramatic collapse of a rescue plan on Wednesday evening. The High Court hearing was due to go ahead yesterday, but was deferred for a day as not all interested parties were in court.

It is expected that the examiner, Mr David Hughes of Ernst & Young, will be appointed liquidator to the company, following today's hearing. The move from examinership to liquidation means creditors will fare far worse than if the rescue plan had succeeded.

Sources said last night that the withdrawal of the original proposed investors - Irish Continental Group (ICG), NatWest Ventures and Citicorp Capital Finance - last month had made it very difficult to maintain confidence in the company.

As the examiner and his team tried to put another package together, time and market share were slipping away, sources said.

It has also emerged that the company may have to apply to the courts in the Netherlands, Germany and Italy for its operations in those countries to be put into liquidation.

A Dutch consortium of stevedores, including Europe Combined Terminals, is interested in taking over the stevedoring activities at the Bell Mertens Terminal.

A spokesman for the port authority, which is bringing the interested parties together, said last night that the terminal could be profitable. "The main trade at the terminal is from Ireland and the UK - there is enough traffic throughput for it to be profitable now and in the future.

The terminal began operations around one year ago and handles around 260,000 containers a year. Less than half are handled by Bell. The port authority has invested around 20 million guilders (Pounds 6.6 million) in it.

The land is leased to Bell which provides the cranes and buildings. The port spokesman said the authority wanted to secure its investment, but felt the terminal had a good future.

The Dutch consortium is not interested in buying the shipping routes from Britain. The port is strategically located and it believes it is well- placed to win more business from Europe and point out that the business from Ireland will still exist, despite Bell's demise.

Among the company's assets are 9,000 transport containers. These are spread all over Europe and one source said many of them may go missing" as irate creditors hold onto them.

It is unclear how much they are worth and if all were recovered and sold together, they would clearly depress the market.

Assets not subject to charge are said to be around Pounds 2.5 million. There is also a certain amount of "goodwill" on routes which Bell had used. The company would have had agreements with certain ports to ship a certain amount of goods for a fixed price. Such agreements could be assigned to other companies. However, it is likely that the routes will be "cherry- picked".

Accountancy sources said last night that the liquidation will be a long and tortuous process. The examiner, Mr Hughes is strongly tipped to be appointed liquidator, but he declined to comment yesterday.

Although not usual, the appointment of an examiner as a liquidator has occurred before. Sources said it would make sense - Mr Hughes and his team have worked on a rescue package for five months and know the company very well - and it would be cheaper than appointing someone who would have to familiarise themselves with the business.

The secured creditors, who are owed around Pounds 6 million, will get paid in full. However, accountancy sources said that after other liabilities are met, it is likely that only around Pounds 5 million will be left over to pay unsecured creditors.

Under the examiner's scheme the unsecured creditors were owed Pounds 25 million. This will now rise to Pounds 42 million and will make the unsecured creditors' situation more precarious.

Industry sources also said last night that the liquidation, because it will be a court liquidation, will be far more expensive than an ordinary winding up process.

One source said he would not relish the job. "It will take years," he said, "and will be very messy."