Eurostar has today announced it
has reached a £250 million refinancing agreement with its shareholders and banks.
The refinancing package includes additional
equity and loans from a syndicate of banks guaranteed by the shareholders: majority shareholder Patina Rail
LLP, rail operators SNCF and SNCB, and the infrastructure team of Federated Hermes.
Jacques Damas, chief executive of Eurostar, said: “Everyone at
Eurostar is encouraged by this strong show of support from our shareholders and
banks which will allow us to continue to provide this important service for
passengers. The refinancing agreement is the key factor enabling us to
increase our services as the situation with the pandemic starts to improve.
"Eurostar will continue to work closely with governments to move towards a safe
easing of travel restrictions and streamlining of border processes to allow
passengers to travel safely and seamlessly. Their co-ordinated actions and
decisions are crucial to the restoring of demand and the financial recovery of
our business.”
Eurostar said that since the start of the pandemic it had “experienced
a more severe decline in demand resulting from the global covid-19 pandemic
than any other European train operator or competitor airline”. In November, the company said that demand was down 95 per cent and was "fighting for survival".
The company will increase the
number of trains on its London-Paris route to two daily return services from 27 May,
and three per day from the end of June with a view to gradually increasing the
frequency over the summer period as travel restrictions are eased.
Eurostar said that the refinancing package would allow
it to complete its merger with Thalys, as part of the Green Speed project.