Furious Eurotunnel shareholders being stripped of "£1 a trip" travel rights could lose less generous replacement perks within four years.

The Channel Tunnel operator is planning to drop the right for some 4,000 founder investors to use Eurotunnel services as frequently as they like for £1 a trip. Instead they will, like all other investors, qualify for a 30 per cent discount on six one-way journeys per year.

It has now emerged that the group's management look set to be granted the right to drop all shareholder privileges after the end of 2010.

Eurotunnel has refused to bow to pressure to extend the £1 travel deal, which was granted to those shareholders who bought £5,250 worth of shares at its 1987 flotation. Investors who bought shares later do not qualify for the same perks.

Jacques Gounon, the chairman, said that it was not an option to extend rights of early shareholders as to do so would be "discriminatory".

Eurotunnel claims that under French stock market regulations it must treat all shareholders equally as part of the offer. A spokesman said that it would not be economically viable to extend the perks of founder shareholders to all of its shareholders, many of whom are individual investors with small holdings.

In a document sent to shareholders as part of its plan to wipe out a large portion of its debt, the company said that there were three separate privileges programmes, dated 1987, 1990 and 1996, but it would adopt, "as its only programme", one similar to the latter scheme.

At a meeting of UK shareholder representatives last June, committee members agreed that travel privileges, and historical privileges in particular, should be maintained. Mr Gounon, who was present, said that the committee's views would be taken into account as part of the restructuring process.

Eurotunnel Foundation Shareholders’ Action Group, a group of unhappy shareholders, is threatening the company with a High Court injunction over its plans. The group said it is currently seeking legal advice.

Eurotunnel's move to scrap the perks, part of a debt-for-equity swap designed to save it from bankruptcy, will bring the perks of founding shareholders into line with more recent investors, who already qualify for the less generous perks package.

Creditors of the group have already given their go-ahead for the debt-for-equity swap plan. However, the company must now seek the approval of its 600,000 shareholders, who will have their old shares replaced with shares in Groupe Eurotunnel, a new company.

If it wins shareholder approval, Eurotunnel will cut its debts to £2.8 billion, from £6.2 billion, in a move which the company claims will save it from bankruptcy.

A spokesman for Eurotunnel said: "The real issue is that unless the exchange offer succeeds the company will be bankrupt, put into administration and sold to the highest bidder."

He said the condition in the tender offer that allowed for the removal of the shareholder privileges programme was a precautionary measure.

Eurotunnel investors have seen the value of the shareholdings tumble over the past 20 years, as the group teetered on brink of failure.

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