'Running chance' of saving Eurotunnel

British shareholders in debt-laden Eurotunnel today said they believed the firm’s new management had “a running chance” of saving it.

Investors at a meeting in London cautiously welcomed newly elected chairman Jacques Gounon’s plans to cut its €9.4bn debt.

They said Mr Gounon had done well in heading off a leadership challenge at Friday’s annual meeting in France.

Shareholders said he should be given a chance to show he could succeed with his rescue plan, which involves asking creditors to write off two thirds of the company’s debt.

Today’s meeting followed Friday’s talks in Coquelles, France, at which shareholders overwhelmingly elected Mr Gounon as the company’s chairman and chief executive.

The 98% vote in favour of Mr Gounon helped him to head off a potential challenge from former chief executive Jean-Louis Raymond, who resigned from the board about a week ago.

A leading British member of the company’s investors committee, Tony Hein, said today that most shareholders had realised Eurotunnel needed stability and “not a fourth chairman in 14 months”.

“Mr Gounon has shown leadership and guts,” he said. “His approach is bullish and who knows whether he will pull it off.

“I think there will be some dilution (of the company’s shares), but he has established a bargaining position with the creditors from which he can move in various directions.”

Mr Hein described the company as “sick”, but said he did not believe it would go bankrupt.

He said the company’s creditors and hedge funds may eventually step in and replace the company’s board with their own team.

But he added: “Jacques Gounon should be given the chance to show what he can do. I believe he has a running chance of succeeding.”

Friday’s meeting in Coquelles was far more subdued than the equivalent meeting in Paris last year, when rebel shareholders led by maverick investor Nicolas Miguet, ousted the firm’s Anglo-French board and replaced it with their own all-French team.

The reaction of British shareholders at today’s meeting was also far more favourable than that at last year’s London meeting, when they expressed scepticism about the new leadership’s plans.