Eurotunnel chief threatened by shareholder vote
Debt-laden Eurotunnel today reported a “massive” shareholder turnout ahead of a vote that threatens the position of its chairman.
The Channel Tunnel operator said it had already received proxy votes from investors representing 40% of shares ahead of tomorrow’s annual meeting in France.
Chairman Jacques Gounon could be ousted from his post after former chief executive Jean-Louis Raymond revealed plans to stand against him.
Mr Raymond, who quit a week ago, claims to have a rescue strategy for Eurotunnel to rival that of Mr Gounon, who has controversially proposed to ask creditors to write off two-thirds of Eurotunnel’s £6.2bn (€9.3bn) debt.
The clash has echoes of 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.
A spokesman for Eurotunnel would not reveal which way the vote had gone, although he said Mr Gounon was confident of winning.
Mr Raymond – who is believed to have the backing of rebel investor Nicholas Miguet – is expected to propose his own alternative board at the meeting.
He said earlier this week that he would offer a plan and a team “to rescue the business from the mire in which it finds itself”.
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.
Failure by Mr Gounon to win tomorrow’s vote is likely to cast fresh uncertainty over Eurotunnel’s survival bid and lift the prospect of a takeover of the company by creditors.
