Eurotunnel facing stormy AGM
Investors in struggling Channel Tunnel operator Eurotunnel are preparing for another potentially turbulent annual meeting in France today.
Shareholders will gather at a conference centre in Coquelles near Calais for a vote on Eurotunnel’s chairmanship that could have decisive implications for the survival of the group.
Chairman Jacques Gounon is urging shareholders to re-elect him against challenger and former chief executive Jean-Louis Raymond.
Mr Gounon claims failure to re-install him as chairman could derail his plans to restructure the company’s debt and result in its bankruptcy and a takeover by creditors.
However, Mr Raymond, who quit a week ago, claims to have an alternative rescue strategy for Eurotunnel.
He has proposed a new Anglo-French board for Eurotunnel and has accused Mr Gounon of doing nothing to improve its fortunes since he was elected.
Today’s occasion looks likely to echo last year’s gathering in Paris, when rebel shareholders replaced the group’s entire Anglo-French board with an all-French team of their own.
Eurotunnel yesterday said it had already received proxy votes from investors representing 40% of shares ahead of the meeting.
A spokesman for the group refused to reveal which way the vote had gone, but said Mr Gounon was confident of winning.
Eurotunnel faces a number of changes to its finances in the next couple of years that will worsen its predicament, including the repayment of capital on its loans from the beginning of 2007.
