Eurotunnel has won the right to push ahead with a major refinancing even if half the group’s shareholders reject the deal.

The French stock market regulator has lowered the threshold shareholder vote the Channel Tunnel operator requires to proceed with its debt rescue plan from 60 to 50 per cent.

The plan will see much of the group’s debt wiped out but will leave shareholders with less equity in the new group.

It has been surrounded in controversy after it emerged that founder shareholders who bought into the group when it floated in 1987 would lose the right to unlimited £1-a-trip journeys through the tunnel.

Shareholders that accept the offer will be given shares in a new vehicle called Groupe Eurotunnel, which will take charge of Eurotunnel’s assets.

It has now emerged that founder shareholders can retain their full shareholder privileges by rejecting the offer. By doing so they will remain shareholders in Eurotunnel PLC, which, if the refinancing is successful, will become a subsidiary of Groupe Eurotunnel. Although those shareholders in Eurotunnel PLC will retain their shareholder privileges, they will not qualify for dividends.

By rejecting the deal, shareholders also run the risk that the rescue plan will fail. Jacques Gounon, Eurotunnel chairman, last month gave warning that the company could go bust if the debt-for-equity swap fails to win sufficient support. “The life of the company is at stake. If the exchange offer is unsuccessful... we are dead,” he said.

Eurotunnel called on AMF, the French regulator, to reduce the threshold of support just days after extending the deadline from May 15 to May 21. The company said the move was in reaction to concern that papers hadn’t reached all shareholders. However Mr Gounon has admitted previously that winning the necessary support would be a difficult task.

Some small shareholders have threatened legal action to protect their shareholder perks within the new Groupe Eurotunnel. The company said it had to treat all shareholders equally and had decided to adopt its most recent perks package, which offers a 30 per cent discount on three return trips per year.

The planned debt-for-equity swap will reduce Eurotunnel’s debts from £6.2 billion to £2.8 billion.

By agreeing to the debt-for-equity swap, Eurotunnel shareholders could hold as little as 13 per cent of Groupe Eurotunnel. However, that figure could rise to 67 per cent if the company repays a Pounds 1.3 billion convertible loan note over the next three years.

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