Eurotunnel two months away from bankruptcy
French boss issues dire insolvency warning
Jacques Gounon, the chairman of channel tunnel operator Eurotunnel, has asked
a French court to freeze its debts so it can continue operating after warning
that it is just two months away from going insolvent.
Eurotunnel has a £6.2bn debt mountain and needs to restructure repayments of
this to avoid collapsing.
Gounon warned: ‘If we cannot present plans before the end of September then
the end of the story is easy to write.”
The end result, he said, would be ‘liquidation’.
Eurotunnel has been trying to persuade its bondholders to back a deal to cut
its debt pile in half but a group of creditors has refused to support the
proposals.
The court is expected to make its decision on 25 July.