COMMENT : Tunnel-builder tries to hold back the tide
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Eurotunnel's bankers, or its British and Japanese ones at least, are going to have some difficulty knowing what to make of the appointment yesterday of two mandataires ad hoc to help the company find a way out of its difficulties. To the Anglo-Saxon mind, their purpose and authority is a bewildering one - it might even be described as "typically French" for, though appointed by the highest commercial court in France, the mediators do not appear to have any legal authority whatsoever. Their only powers are those of persuasion.
On the latter count, both are eminently qualified. Robert Badinter, a former French minister of justice, is a highly respected figure in French life while Lord Wakeham as chairman of the Press Complaints Commission has single-handedly proven that even the most toothless of watchdogs can sometimes be made to bark loud enough to deter. If anyone is going to persuade bankers to roll over and let Eurotunnel tickle their tummies, it will be Lord Wakeham.
That is the measure of the task, however. Bankers do not actually have to yield an inch, even under French insolvency law where other "stakeholders" such as employees and shareholders are meant to gain better protection than in Britain's more purist system. Theoretically, the French courts could back a restructuring which required bankers to yield security in favour of shareholders. But even if they did, it seems unlikely that the British courts, to which Eurotunnel is equally responsible, would go along with something that so directly challenged basic principles of creditor security.
Eurotunnel has three goals. It wants shareholders to retain a majority stake in the venture; it wants to stop the process under which banks indefinitely have first call on any available cash flow; and it wants banks to accept debt write-off and cuts in interest rates. In truth, Eurotunnel would have more luck with the tooth fairy than achieving these aims. Shareholders can only hope that Lord Wakeham can achieve some give in the apparently unassailable position occupied by bankers.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments