Groupe Eurotunnel SE reported that its revenues increased to €649 million with a strong growth with a profit of €39 million.
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Jacques Gounon, chairman and chief executive officer of Groupe Eurotunnel SE, stated: “The Eurotunnel Group’s results for the first half year of 2015 are consistent with the dynamism of the previous quarters. We are confident that this positive trend will continue
through the second part of the year. At the same time, we continue to invest in the quality of service of our rolling motorway so that we will be ready to transport 2 million trucks in 2020.
"This performance is the fruit of the efforts and commitment of our 4,000 employees on both sides of the Channel who, despite a sometimes complicated environment, ensure that we offer our customers an excellent, competitive, fast, reliable and comfortable service, every day.â€
During the first half of 2015, revenues for the Shuttle Services increased by 9% compared to the first half of 2014. The car business is growing with 1,159,863 vehicles (+4%) and a very positive market share of 54.8% in a growing market. The truck business has seen an increase of 8% in volumes to 752,290 vehicles, with a market share of 37.5%. The Eurotunnel Group continues to benefit from the growth in the UK economy thanks to its frequency of shuttle departures.
During the first half of the year, revenue from the Railway Network has increased by 1%. For Eurostar, after a difficult start of the year due to the terrorist attacks in Paris at the start of January, then traffic difficulties later in the month and the reduction in services to Disneyland Paris, growth in demand and the launch of new direct services from London to Lyon and Marseilles from 1st May have enabled the trend to be reversed resulting in a 2% growth compared to the first half of 2014.
The rail freight business has grown by 4% in the first half of 2015 largely due to the commercial impact of the Eurotunnel Incentive for Capacity Additions (ETICA), the scheme to support the start-up of new services.
The increase in pressure from migrants in Calais led to disruption to services during June and could lead to further disruptions to traffic and to additional security expenditure in the second half of the year.
€13 million has already been spent on security measures in the first half of the year, equivalent to the total expenditure for the whole year of 2014, part of which may be reimbursed by the conceding states as set out in the Treaty of Canterbury and under jurisprudence: the UK government has already agreed to reimburse €4.7 million and a request for €9.7 million has been addressed to the Intergovernmental Commission (IGC), as has been done in the past. ■