Groupe Eurotunnel News

Danish ferry and transportation firm DFDS is on the takeover trail, its chief executive said, after reporting its highest first-quarter operating profit on record and turning around its loss-making English Channel route. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) more than doubled to 228 million Danish crowns ($34 million) from a year ago led by the shipping division, the firm said, also raising its full-year forecast. "We are placing bids on other companies on a regular basis," Chief Executive Niels Smedegaard told Reuters. Last year it bought British logistic firms Stef Transport and Quayside, both minor players in a fragmented industry. DFDS operates around 50 freight and passenger ships mainly on routes in Northern Europe.

Ferries owned by Groupe Eurotunnel and run under the MyFerryLink brand can continue to run between Britain and France, after a British court upheld an appeal from a workers' collective which runs run the ferries. Britain's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has been examining Eurotunnel's move into the ferry market since late 2012, and a tribunal earlier this year ruled that Eurotunnel should cease its MyFerryLink operations. But by a two to one majority decision, the Court of Appeal on Friday upheld the appeal by the Société Coopérative de Production de SeaFrance, the workers' collective involved in running the ferries. The CMA will now consider whether to launch an appeal to the Supreme Court.

Groupe Eurotunnel, which runs the undersea rail link between Britain and France, is putting its ferry service between the two countries up for sale after a ban on it operating the route was upheld by Britain's Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT). CAT's ruling supported a ban brought in by Britain's antitrust regulator and comes after a long-running probe by the country's competition authorities into Eurotunnel's move into the ferry market. Under the ruling announced on Friday, Eurotunnel now has six months to cease its MyFerryLink operations between France and Britain, with the company saying it would seek a buyer for the business, which it said was run as an independent company.

Britain's competition regulator has told Groupe Eurotunnel, the operator of the undersea rail link between Britain and France, it will have to stop operating its separate cross-channel ferry service in the next six months and find a buyer for the ships, confirming a decision it made in May. Eurotunnel immediately said it would appeal an "absurd" decision, which it said would mean higher prices for consumers and put 600 people out of work. Groupe Eurotunnel operator started to operate services on the Dover-Calais crossing in 2012 under the MyFerryLink brand when it acquired three ferries from the now-defunct SeaFrance service owned by French railways operator SNCF. "Eurotunnel will be given six months to stop running services from the date of an order to that effect.

The European Union Competition Appeal Tribunal has overturned a Competition Commission ruling that MyFerryLink, which operates leased ex-Sea France ferries from Groupe Eurotunnel, must stop running its services, reports Maritime London. However, the judgment was based on arguments of jurisdiction and not the substance of the competition arguments so the Competition Commission will now re-examine the case. Jacques Gounon, chairman and chief executive officer of Groupe Eurotunnel, stated: “This is a victory for the consumer.