Anglo-French Channel tunnel operator Eurotunnel has reported a strong rise in operational profit to €326 million but said financial costs triggered a 2006 net loss of €204 million.
"These excellent operational results clearly show that it will be only through the new company Groupe Eurotunnel ... that we will finally be able to remove the spectre of bankruptcy that threatened Eurotunnel in 2005," chief executive Jacques Gounon said in a statement.
Eurotunnel ran up huge debts during the construction of the Channel Tunnel, which opened in 1994. Its business plan quickly got into difficulties when passenger numbers failed to meet its projections.
Late last year creditors and bondholders of the Anglo-French cross Channel tunnel operator voted in favour of a plan that will slash debt to £2.84 billion from £6.2 billion, following many months of arduous negotiations.
Eurotunnel's sales rose 5 per cent to €830 million in 2006, an increase which the head of the Channel tunnel operator said beat their own financial estimates.