Eurotunnel, the Anglo-French operator of the Channel Tunnel, yesterday won another crucial two months to work out how to repay its GBP8.1 billion (about HK$97.46 billion) debt.
The extra time was awarded by the French courts and announced late yesterday, just as the London market closed, leaving no time for shares to react. Shares closed unchanged at 101 pence.
Eurotunnel now has until the end of September to try to agree a plan with its 226 lending banks, of which one of the biggest creditors is HSBC Holdings' British subsidiary Midland Bank.
The agreement marks the second time Eurotunnel has won a respite from the courts. The deadline to present a debt financing plan had originally been scheduled for presentation to shareholders on June 30, but that was extended until yesterday.
Eurotunnel co-chairmen Sir Alistair Morton and Patrick Ponsolle said they asked the president of the Tribunal de Commerce in Paris to extend even further the mandate of the two negotiators, Lord Wakeham and Robert Badinter.
'In the light of the progress already achieved in these discussions, under the guidance of the mandataires , both Eurotunnel and the banks intend to pursue actively the negotiations during the coming weeks,' the company said.