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Eurotunnel seeks debt negotiations
Page 16
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CHANNEL TUNNEL operator Eurotunnel is to ask the French courts for more time to negotiate with creditors over its £6.2bn debts.
The company has already spent 15 months trying to negotiate its way out of its debt problem and last week reached the end of a key negotiating period. It will now ask the Commercial Court of Paris to place it under protection.
If the request is granted it means the tunnel will be able to operate as normal, while negotiations for debt restructuring continues.
The court will appoint an administrator to help the negotiations, and who would ultimately have the power to impose a solution.
The advantage to Eurotunnel would be that it could continue operating under court protection, which is renewable every six months. A Eurotunnel spokesman says it would separate day-to-day operations from historic debts.
The debt restructuring talks involve more than 100 people, including Eurotunnel management, Close Brothers, Deutsche Bank and several hedge funds.
In a statement last week Eurotunnel said it decided to go to the French courts after the failure of the latest attempt at solving the debt issue.