It's still uncertain who will control the long-term future of Chiquita Brands International Inc., but it probably won't be the bondholders who are driving the company through bankruptcy.

        Those bondholders, who are exchanging more than $800 million in debt for Chiquita stock, are likely to sell their stake soon after Chiquita emerges, their attorney said this week.

        “I'd be surprised if this is a long-term equity play for most of them,” Alan Kornberg said. “We want to make sure this is a viable company, then we'll figure out what our exit strategy is.”

        The bondholders, many from out-of-town firms that specialize in high-yield, high-risk investments, have left chairman Carl Lindner and chief executive officer Steve Warshaw in place.

        Because their debt must be paid first, the bondholders will get more than 90 percent of the new Chiquita stock that will be issued after the bankruptcy.

        But their intention to cash out means that the company will have to sell itself as a growth story to a whole new group of stock-market investors, from individuals to institutions such as pension funds.

        That could be difficult because Chiquita has burned its current stockholders, who have watched the stock lose almost all of its value since reaching an all-time high of $50 a share in 1991.

        Those current shareholders will get only 2 percent of the new Chiquita stock.

        But Mr. Warshaw last week said he was confident he could make the sale. With improved prospects in Europe, the company has projected sales to increase 21 percent and operating earnings 60 percent before 2005.

        And it will save $60 million in annual interest costs because of the debt eliminated in the bankruptcy.

        “Chiquita is going to be a very interesting situation going forward,” Mr. Warshaw said.

        Several bondholders declined to comment on their investment strategy with Chiquita. But their lawyer, Mr. Kornberg, said they think getting the debt off Chiquita's books was crucial.

        “This is not an operational turnaround,” he said.

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