Quickbites 8212; Eurotunnel shareholders back debt restructuring

July 13: Eurotunnel shareholders voted in favour of a bank debt restructuring deal meant to put an end to the channel tunnel operator's fin...

July 13: Eurotunnel shareholders voted in favour of a bank debt restructuring deal meant to put an end to the channel tunnel operator8217;s financial problems, Eurotunnel8217;s British co-chairman Robert Malpas said. The deal will slash the current shareholders8217; stake to 54.4 per cent from 100 per cent, with the rest going to Eurotunnel8217;s banks in exchange for a reduction in its debt.

Eurotunnel, unable to raise the revenues needed to repay the heavy debt borrowed to build the channel tunnel, had sought the debt restructuring to put an end to the Financial problems which dogged it before it even began services in 1994.

Shareholder approval was necessary for it to go ahead. The debt restructuring was approved 98 per cent by British shareholders, and by 96 to 97 per cent by French shareholders at a shareholders8217; meeting in Paris.

quot;All the resolutions on the restructuring have been approved. The shareholders vote was extraordinarily clear. We have turned a page for the company and I hope it is a happy page,quot; Eurotunnel8217;s French executive chairman Patrick Ponsolle said.

Fujitsu to buy Portugese firm

Japanese computer giant Fujitsu Ltd. plans to buy a Portuguese telecom equipment firm in a bid to expand sales and production in Europe, a company spokesman said. Fujitsu is to purchase an initial 40 per cent stake in Elotecnico Electronica E Telecomunicacoes SA by the end of July, with plans to raise its stake to 100 percent in 1999, the spokesman said.

This marks Fujitsu8217;s first purchase of a sales and maintenance company in continental Europe, the spokesman said. quot;The purchase is part of our strategy to expand our sales and production network in the European telecommunications market,quot; he said.

China will lead in air traffic

China will be the leading Asia-Pacific country for international and domestic air traffic by 2010, comfortably surpassing Japan, according to a latest study. The study by the independent Swiss-based Air Transport Action Group ATAG predicted that Asia-Pacific8217;s share of international scheduled traffic would climb to about 50 per cent by 2010 from the present 36.2 per cent. The total international and domestic traffic, combined,for China would increase from 61.6 million passengers to 291.5 million by 2010.

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If traffic in and out of Hong Kong had been included, the China total would increase to 362.3 million passengers annually, about six times larger than its current total. This would leave it more than 50 per cent larger than its closest market rival, Japan, which is expected to have 225.6 million domestic and international passengers by 2010, compared with its present 118.8 million. Excluding Hong Kong, China was expected to have a market share of 26 per cent for the Asia-pacific region in 2010.