Lernout & Hauspie sweet-talks creditors

NEWS Struggling software firm Lernout & Hauspie has filed a business restructuring plan with Belgian courts in a last ditch effort to avoid bankruptcy. The company is currently in talks with a consortium of five Belgian and German banks - all L&H creditors - to continue work on its speech and language technologies through a new company. Under the restructuring plan the creditors will take a 100 per cent stake in the new company, dubbed Newco. A separate restructuring plan has been drawn up for L&H's US division Dictaphone. Creditors will receive a 65 per cent holding in the revamped US operations. The new plan requires $20m to 25m investment and will keep 400 employees. An earlier restructuring plan was thrown out of court in June because it was deemed too expensive. L&H owes its creditors $340m and was expected to file for bankruptcy yesterday. But a filing has now been postponed until late September to allow the consortium time to consider the offer.