But with a 50-page list of creditors who are owed more than $31 billion, not including Enron's hidden liabilities, the bankruptcy could take years.

Enron's hidden liabilities in hundreds of partnerships that eventually led to the company's collapse were never mentioned, although a tortuous path through the footnote section acknowledges the existence of some of these partnerships.

Still, investors who worry that hidden liabilities lurk within Olde will take little solace in learning that Block discovered Mr. Olde's abandonment of his American citizenship only late in the negotiations.

Naoko Nemoto, the analyst who wrote the report, noted that the negative aspects of consolidation are often ignored, including cultural differences and the risk of hidden liabilities.

And banks increasingly are requiring independent environmental audits before making major loans or repossessing the assets of defaulting companies, some of which may contain hidden environmental liabilities.

Due diligence for asset sales is generally cheaper and quicker than for share sales as the investigation covers the specific assets that have been selected rather than investigating hidden liabilities.

The top Federal auditor told President-elect Bill Clinton today that the Government did "an abysmal job of rudimentary bookkeeping" and had tens of billions of dollars in hidden liabilities.

But a final agreement may be slowed by the difficulty of rooting out hidden liabilities in Hynix's books, a complication that often plagues foreign bids for Korean companies.

The Securities Bureau is investigating the hidden liabilities.

In analyzing financial statements, he aims to ferret out a company's "hidden assets," like property whose market value significantly exceeds its book value, or "hidden liabilities," like potential lawsuits.