Agreement reached on ferry financing
The cross-Channel ferry operator
which took over SeaFrance’s staff and ships has been given almost
10 million Euro by a French court.
A spokesman for MyFerryLink said
the settlement between the company and the SeaFrance liquidator
largely removed the uncertainty surrounding the funding of the
employee partnership.
At a hearing of the Tribunal de
Commerce in Paris, agreement was reached for the payment of 25,000
Euro for each former SeaFrance employee in France who joined the
new MyFerryLink enterprise – a sum of almost 10 million Euro.
In total, 371 qualifying staff
joined the ‘SCOP’ partnership which began its services on August
20, after contracts were agreed with Eurotunnel which bought three
former SeaFrance ships and other assets.
The company says the launch of the
SCOP has seen a transformation in working practices, reliability
and customer service which has resulted in MyFerryLink
achievingmore than 4% of the cross-Channel market in three
months.
By the end of December, MyFerryLink
had carried more than 100,000 passengers and 12,000 trucks.
UK managing director Robin Wilkins
said he was encouraged by the company’s progress "in a difficult
market".
"We have just received an interim
payment of 7 million Euros and the balance will be paid shortly,"
he said. "This is a very welcome cash injection for us and we are
looking forward to consolidating our position on the channel.
"We have an extremely motivated
team of enthusiastic staff who are very much enjoying being in the
SCOP partnership and this is reflected in the huge number of
positive comments we are receiving from our customers."
MyFerryLink operates up to 16 tourism crossings a day between
Dover and Calais using the ferries Rodin and Berlioz.
28/01/13
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