Hawaiian Telcom, which filed for bankruptcy protection Monday, said it is holding talks with several investors to buy the local phone company.

In a filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware, the company said it contacted 12 investment groups since October to acquire a stake in the company or purchase it outright.

The company's Washington, D.C.-based owner the Carlyle Group also has submitted its own restructuring plan, which includes additional investments in the local phone company, the filing said.

"As of the date hereof, discussions are ongoing ... regarding potential restructuring options and a potential sale of all or substantially of Hawaiian Telcom's assets," Hawaiian Telcom's Chief Financial Officer Robert Reich said in the filing.

The company did not identify the investment groups.

The cost of buying Hawaiian Telcom today will likely be much less than the $1.6 billion that the Carlyle Group paid for the company in 2005.

Dimitri Triantafyllides, founder of Sixty Guilders Management, a Charlotte, N.C.-based hedge fund, estimated that Hawaiian Telcom is worth about $625 million today based on recent sales of telecommunications companies.

Much of that loss of value will likely be borne by Hawaiian Telcom's unsecured creditors, including Hawaiian Telcom's bondholders who hold about $500 million of the company's $1.1 billion in debt.

Hawaiian Telcom's bonds are currently trading at pennies on the dollar.

Hawaiian Telcom's local shareholders also will see much of their investment in the phone company wiped out by the bankruptcy.

"Potentially, there may be a payback sometime if they can reinvest in the reorganized company," Walter Dods, Hawaiian Telcom's chairman, said of the local investors.

"But basically at this point it becomes a total loss."

Hawaiian Telcom's 1,400 employees will likely fare much better.

Eric Yeaman, the company's CEO, said Hawaiian Telcom's intention is to honor existing agreements with its workers and its union, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 1357. In October, the IBEW's membership overwhelmingly ratified a new three-year contract.

But Dods cautioned that it's too early to know what impact the bankruptcy will have on employees — if any — without knowing what kind of reorganization plan the company ends up with.

He added that management will remain in close contact with the company's union as they proceed with the reorganization.

Hawaiian Telcom filed for voluntary Chapter 11 reorganization after its attempts to restructure its debt fell through. In its bankruptcy filing, the company listed $1.4 billion in assets and $1.3 billion in debts.

The remarks by Yeaman and Dods were their first since the company filed for bankruptcy protection.

They said the company did all it could to avoid a bankruptcy filing and added that their focus now is to resolve it as quickly as possible.

"We're confident that we're going to get through this as a stronger and much more stable company," Yeaman said.