Eurotunnel cut its debt in half and rebuilt into profitable Getlink

The Channel Tunnel opened with a famous asset and an impossible balance sheet. In 2006 Eurotunnel sought protection from the Paris Commercial Court while creditors and shareholders negotiated a safeguard plan.

The decisive move was to put the business into Groupe Eurotunnel, exchange the old securities and cut debt from €9.2 billion to €4 billion. The plan gave the tunnel time to operate as infrastructure instead of a perpetual refinancing problem.

Under Getlink, the group then added Europorte and ElecLink around the tunnel. In 2023 it reported historic performance: €1.829 billion of revenue, €979 million of EBITDA and €326 million of net profit.

The restructured group reached 2023 revenue of €1.829B, EBITDA of €979M and net profit of €326M.

The tunnel's concession ran to 2086, but the pre-restructuring debt stack demanded returns too quickly.

Court protection let the company negotiate with creditor classes without shutting the railway link.

The exchange offer preserved the operating company while moving the capital structure to one that traffic could support.

Later diversification into rail freight and the ElecLink interconnector made the tunnel a platform, not a single-service asset.

An infrastructure asset can be valuable yet insolvent; survival may require matching debt service to the asset's long useful life.

Getlink became a normal listed infrastructure group rather than a financial distress story. By the tunnel's 30th anniversary, management could talk about smart borders, low-carbon transport and ElecLink growth instead of creditor standstills.