Eurotunnel sells ferry firm to DFDS

CHANNEL Tunnel operator Eurotunnel has sold cross-Channel ferry company MyFerryLink to rival DFDS in a bid to end a running battle with the British competitions authority CMA.

The sale comes despite Eurotunnel last month winning a Court of Appeal ruling that the Competition and Markets Authority could not close down MyFerryLink.

The company feared that the CMA would not give up its bid to close the ferries. It said that it had initially wanted to sell MyFerryLink to the operating company, the workers’ cooperative Scop SeaFrance, but said the Scop had “not had the support it needed to be able to present a takeover proposal”.

Eurotunnel had bought former SeaFrance ferries from SNCF in 2012 and a new ferry service was set up by the Scop. But the CMA said that despite the Scop operating the service EuroTunnel had a Channel crossing monopoly.

The company said in a statement that “the conditions necessary to develop freely did not exist” and it was accepting a “binding offer from DFDS for a let to buy sale of the ferries, Rodin and Berlioz”.

Eurotunnel said the CMA should have no reason to oppose the sale as it would leave two cross-Channel operators, DFDS and P&O, of the same scale.

The CMA had said MyFerryLink should close as it gave Eurotunnel a monopoly that forced down ferry fares and could threaten the closure of another company on the route.

Eurotunnel said the sale would ensure that the ferry business remains in Calais.

It added: “The Eurotunnel Group believes that the constructive manner in which DFDS conducted itself during the recruitment of ex-SeaFrance personnel in 2012 gives hope for the best solution possible with regard to preserving employment, without interruption to services. MyFerryLink employs 370 staff onboard and 106 on land.

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