The cross-Channel company Eurostar, undermined by the Covid-19 pandemic, warns that it could find itself in default of payment at the end of spring if the British and French governments do not come to its rescue.
Read also: British companies call for a Eurostar bailout
"
The disaster is possible,
" Eurostar director general Jacques Damas told AFP on Monday.
A suspension of payment, "
when we have burned all our cash
", is possible "
somewhere in the second quarter, rather in the second half of the second quarter
", he calculated.
“
But if ever the crisis were even more severe, it could even happen a little earlier.
"
The company Eurostar, a 55% subsidiary of SNCF, lost 82% of its turnover last year, compared to 1.1 billion euros in 2019, he lamented.
In practice, sales were divided by twenty from the second to the fourth quarter.
"
We are at 5% of turnover since April 1, to put it very simply,
" noted Jacques Damas.
Eurostar "
suffers more than the airlines
" because of the "
accumulation of health rules defined by the different countries
" served, Great Britain, France, Belgium and the Netherlands, according to him.
And since the start of the year, the cross-Channel company has only been running one London-Paris round trip and one London-Brussels-Amsterdam per day, which are 80% empty.
"
There is more than essential travel
," noted the manager, noting that the company made a point of honor "to
maintain a high level of service
".
Very critical situation
Faced with the scale of the crisis, Eurostar has undertaken to drastically reduce its costs, put its workforce on short-time working, borrowed 400 million pounds (450 million euros) and obtained 210 million euros from its shareholders.
Eurostar is 55% owned by SNCF, 40% by the Patina Rail consortium - made up of 30% of the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec and 10% of the British fund Hermes Infrastructures and 5% by the Belgian SNCB.
But these shareholders themselves have limited capacities, and "
there has to be a third party that does its job: governments
", underlined Jacques Damas.
To support his approach, business leaders in London called on the British government to participate in a Eurostar bailout.
Eurostar needs "
swift action to safeguard its future,
" employers' organization London First said in a letter to UK Finance Minister Rishi Sunak and Secretary of State for Transport Grant Shapps.
London First is urging the government to offer similar aids, such as tax cuts and access to loans, to those given to strategically-looking businesses facing the same situation, such as airports.
The UK Department for Transport has cautiously asserted that the government "has been
interacting extensively and regularly with Eurostar since the start of the epidemic
".
"
We will continue to work with them as we help a safe restart and resumption of international travel
," said a spokesperson.
To read also: A veteran of the SNCF named at the head of Eurostar
Asked on RTL on this subject this Monday, January 18, the Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire for his part assured that the French State would support the cross-Channel company, in the same way that it supported the SNCF and Air France the latter. month.
Saying "
very concerned
" by the "
very critical situation
" of Eurostar on Friday, SNCF Voyageurs CEO Christophe Fanichet lamented his particular situation: "
It is a French company in England, so it is not helped by English, and she is not helped by the French because she is in England
”, being historically based in London.
Eurostar is asking for access to the same secured loans as airlines, and would like a temporary reduction on the tolls paid to run its trains.
