The threat of bankruptcy has focused Eurotunnel management, and attracted the attentions of the investment banks. The Channel Tunnel firm has cut costs by reducing Shuttle services and introducing flexible fares, ensuring trains are fuller and revenues rise.
In the third quarter overall revenues grew 7 per cent to £149.5 million. Strip out the minimum Tunnel usage charge train operators must pay, which ends this week, and underlying Shuttle revenue actually soared 12 per cent to £87.3 million.
If creditors agree to write off part of their debt, interest payments on the remaining £2.84 billion debt should be below £150 million. The banks eager to lend new money - Goldman Sachs, Deutsche and Citigroup - know that Eurotunnel can easily afford this.
Without the massive £6.2 billion debt burden that weighed it down, and with bank refinancing, Eurotunnel could at last become a safe and boring utility with steady cashflows.