EuroBusinessMedia (EBM) : Groupe Eurotunnel, the company that operates the Channel tunnel just announced a capital increase with the launch of an issue of Subordinated Deffered Equity Securities (SDES). Jacques Gounon, welcome. You are the CEO of Eurotunnel. Could you tell us a little more about this capital increase.
Jacques Gounon (JG) : The fact that we have the possibility to launch such a capital increase when we faced a difficult situation, let's say one year ago, is something I would say is quite is quite important. So, in the safeguard plan, one year ago we issued notes which are callable at any time and so we have decided, by anticipation, to launch a new capital increase in order to redeem these notes and we organized it in two phases: the first phase is an 800 million euros of deffered equity securities (SDES) in order to reimburse the first part of the ORA II and what is important to underline is the fact that such issue is fully guaranteed by Goldman Sachs and we have a placement pool of major banks which are Citigroup, Lehman Brothers, Lazard - Natixis; so really we have something which is sure, which is attractive and which will give a possibility for the company to make savings at least in the financial interest of the notes that we are redeeming in April.
EBM : For the purpose of this capital increase, you published audited accounts for 2007 up to October 31st. What are your estimates for the full year 2007?
JG : Estimated, not audited, of course, but the turnover has already been published: 775 million euros, which is 40 million euros better than our initial forecast and roughly it is the forecast for 2009 in the initial business plan. More important, of course, is the EBITDA. We reached 439 million euros of EBITDA which is absolutely fabulous. It is 59 million euros over the previous forecast, so you can understand that with such very positive results we are comfortable to launch the rights issue I mentioned and it is why perhaps we had no difficulty to underwrite the full amount of the 800 million euros deferred equity securities we are mentioning.
EBM: We witnessed a clear improvement of the activity in the past year. How sustainable is this momentum?
JG : I think it is a very sound momentum. In order to give very clear indications to the investors, we will launch a new, revised business plan for the years '08, '09 and '10 and remaining cautious regarding such figures – so, really conservative – we can say, in a nutshell, that the 50 million euros we are in advance on both turnover and EBITDA will be kept the years to come and perhaps we will do better. But just to say that with such predictability, we have the possibility to tell our investors that we are an infrastructure, we are long-term infrastructure because the concession is ending only in 2086, which means that we have 78 years in front of us: very predictable. We are fully supported by the success we have on our own shuttles but also with the new high-speed line in Great Britain because Eurostar is absolutely booming, which is good for us, and all in all our cash flows are very positive, very sustainable, and we can improve them with the savings we will make on the financial interest when we redeem the notes. And more than that, I would say we have some new possibilities for further development so really, no problems for the future of Eurotunnel.
EBM: Jacques Gounon, CEO of Eurotunnel, thank you very much.
JG : Thank you.
