French Markets Victim of Blunder
As the turmoil in the eurozone continues, a ratings agency has been criticised after making a blunder which could have had potentially devastating consequences for the French financial markets.Read more
Cracks Appear as Eurozone Rescue Plan looks Doubtful
Tensions are high as another EU summit gets under way to try to solve the Euro-zone's continuing debt crisis.Read more
France Threatened with Downgrade
France has been threatened with having its credit rating downgraded by a leading credit agency.Read more
Europe Delay Decision on Debt Crisis
Despite coming under pressure from the United States and Britain, the European Union have decided to postpone making any decision on the Eurozone sovereign debt crisis - for two more weeks.Read more
SeaFrance Sinks
Troubled ferry operator SeaFrance has gone into liquidation. The company, which suspended all ferry crossings back in November has now formally ceased trading. Anyone with tickets has been told to contact the company for a full refund, though as yet, no details of how to do this have been posted on their website.
The state owned company, which was put into receivership in 2010 after running up huge debts due in part to increased competition, was officially liquidated by a French court today after the the Tribunal de Commerce decided it had no viable future. A joint bid from rival operators DFDS and LD Lines for €5m was rejected in November. A bid by a worker's cooperative - to buy the company for a euro - were also rejected.
A last minute rescue plan was put forward last week by SeaFrance's worker's cooperative, known as SCOP, which would have been funded using co-operative member's redundancy money plus an 'extraordinary' payment from Seafrance's owners SNCF - France's state owned railway company. The bid was backed by President Sarkozy and had support from Eurotunnel but was rejected by the court on the grounds that it was not 'financially viable'. The only other option under consideration was a complete French government bailout - of 200m euros - which the European Commission ruled was illegal.
The company employed around a thousand people, mostly in France, with 135 employees in Dover. It is believed that around 840 posts will be lost immediately. Meanwhile, Eurotunnel have said they 'haven't ruled out' making a bid for the cross-channel ferry operator's assets.
Mon, 9 Jan 2012 16:44
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