...Case Study IV: Group Eurotunnel S.A. (A) The first restructuring 1995-1998 The aim of the 95/98 restructuring was to adjust debt levels and terms so that interest expenses could be paid and debts serviced, even considering Eurotunnel’s (ET’s) - compared to budgeted forecasts - higher construction cost, delayed opening, and worse than expected post-construction financial performance. Revenue kept on decreasing in 99/00 (economic growth slowed, decreased tourism, traffic stoppages, telecom cables sales dropped), and costs increased (security). While ET still could service interest payments to creditors due to “stabilization facility’”, the company carried a net loss of £-124 M in 2000, and the restructuring was evidently not sufficient for the long term. Operating profit was still positive in 2000, so clearly the fault was still too high interest expenses. A reason the interest expenses was still too high was that although the debt outstanding was lowered from £8.9 B to £6.3 B, it had in part been replaced by other interest-bearing instruments. These included £1 B of interest bearing equity notes, £1.2 B of interest-carrying PLNs (although initially low rates) and £1.5 B long-term resettable interest-bearing advances. The restructuring did consequently not decrease interest expenses enough in relation to the 99/00 operating profit, which was even worse than that of previous years. As can be seen by the 00/02 restructurings, the company needed more buyback of debt and equity...
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...Groupe Eurotunnel S.A.’s (GESA) roots go back to the Channel Tunnel Treaty that was signed between the UK and France in Feb 12, 1986. The plan is to connect Folkstone, England to Coquelles, France with 50 km rail-only tunnels running under the British Channels. Winning design is submitted by Channel Tunnel-Frace Manche Group, a group of UK & French banks and construction companies which later renames itself to Eurotunnel. Eurotunnel becomes a stand-alone entity with its own board of directors and senior management team. Initial projection for the cost of the project is £4.9 billion and the initial estimated completion date is 1993. Also, Eurotunnel is granted a 55 year concession to construct and operate the tunnel. As first order of business, in 1987, Eurotunnel set out to sign a usage contract called Railway Usage Contract (RUC) with the UK, French and Belgian national rail companies. This contract allows the rail companies to utilize 50% of Channel Tunnel capacity in exchange for annual cash payments to Eurotunnel that comprised of a fixed annual fee, a variable fee calculated using toll formula, a contribution to Eurotunnel’s operating costs and a minimum usage charge. Then the company starts raising capital through debt and equity offerings. Eurotunnel got listed in both Paris and London Stock Exchanges and offers discounted (and per my research, free in some cases) travel to shareholders. Construction of the tunnel begins in November of 1987 and it is completed in...
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...The extent to which new, or complex, technologies impacted upon the project. The Channel Tunnel project would have been built two centuries ago if it was technically feasible. In 1802, the idea of a road tunnel was suggested to Napoleon during a brief peace between France and England. French engineer Albert Mathieu Favier gave Napoleon details of a scheme involving two tunnels, one which would be candle-lit for horse-drawn carriages and the second acting as a sort of drain to take away water seeping into it (Anderson & Roskrow 1994). However the scheme existed only on paper due to the absence of appropriate tunneling techniques. Digging a tunnel under ground is not a novel technology; however, the geology is, especially under the sea. Engineers had to check and hoped to find that a suitable rock for tunneling stretched in an unbroken bed across the channel. Building a tunnel doesn’t require innovative technology, otherwise the government would not approve the project go ahead. However, the actual construction of a 50 km-long Channel Tunnel up to 50 meters below the sea tested the ingenuity and skills of the top minds in the European and American construction industry (Anderson & Roskrow 1994). There were 11 specialized boring machines have been used in total on both, the British and the French sides, to work their way through the chalk marl stratum, which is between the gray chalk and glauconitic layer. The ground condition on the UK side had caused problem. The machine...
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...of Europe. The Channel Tunnel would also be able to provide an alternative competitive link between the transportation systems of the UK and France, providing both speed and reliability to freight deliveries. With the strong endorsement from the governments of both sovereigns, the decision to build the Channel Tunnel was thus made. In April 1985, the British and French governments issued a formal invitation to potential tenderers for the fixed Channel link and eventually the contract was awarded to the consortium Channel Tunnel Group Limited- France Manche S.A. (CTG/FM) (later renamed Eurotunnel). The Channel Tunnel, with the governments’ intention that it be privately funded and there would not be any government assistance or undertaking, was a build-own-operate-transfer (B-O-O-T) project with a concession. The project organization is shown in Figure 1. In this contract arrangement, Eurotunnel would be the owner cum operator,...
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...spanning over 30 miles with 23.5 of the miles under water. The project melded a difficult mix of numerous contractors and regulatory agencies with bankers and two national governments (Fairweather, 1994). While an overall success the project suffered from many planning and management mistakes that caused it to be grossly over budget and late. One of the key mistakes that befell the project was also one of the costliest. The contract that was entered into between Eurotunnel and Transmache Link (TML) for the terminals and the mechanical and electrical equipment was a lump-sum contract (Fairweather, 1994). This decision was driven by the desire of the bankers involved in the project for a level of certainty on the costs. This error could have been prevented with a few basic project management techniques. The bankers, being a key stakeholder, had the right to have their desires understood by Eurotunnel before any contracts were signed. What failed to happen was effective communications between the engineers at Eurotunnel who had the knowledge to understand the risks involved with this phase of the project and the bankers who were requiring a contract basis that was not appropriate to the type of project. The PMBoK (2008) provides that a proper project management plan with a thorough stakeholder management strategy and an effective communications plan could have ensured all stakeholders were aware of the risks and prepared to conduct contract negotiations with full knowledge and...
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...Project Financing Asset-Based Financial Engineering Second Edition JOHN D. FINNERTY, Ph.D. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Project Financing Founded in 1807, John Wiley & Sons is the oldest independent publishing company in the United States. With offices in North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia, Wiley is globally committed to developing and marketing print and electronic products and services for our customers’ professional and personal knowledge and understanding. The Wiley Finance series contains books written specifically for finance and investment professionals as well as sophisticated individual investors and their financial advisors. Book topics range from portfolio management to e-commerce, risk management, financial engineering, valuation, and financial instrument analysis, as well as much more. For a list of available titles, visit our Web site at www.WileyFinance.com. Project Financing Asset-Based Financial Engineering Second Edition JOHN D. FINNERTY, Ph.D. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Copyright C 2007 by John D. Finnerty. All rights reserved Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey. Published simultaneously in Canada. Wiley Bicentennial Logo: Richard J. Pacifico No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States...
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...The implications of the diminution in union forms of representation for the efficiency of employee voice within the workplace In the first decade of the 21st century, HR has been set a large significant number of issues and many subjects such as employee relationship, strategic HR approaches, employee rewarding, people resourcing, management ethics and so forth have attracted great deal of attention, concern and study to analysis their role, effect and contributions in organizations. Even though there are wide ranges of subjects playing different roles in human resource practices, an appreciation of operating the relationship between employees and employers has become an essential position of business and management recently. Traditionally, employers in employee relationship tried to maintain the control of the workforce with the goal of enhancing business performance. Clearly, if workers are treated fairly and respectively, in addition, they have appropriate influence on managerial decision-making, it could better for them perform improvably. Managers prefer grater work outcomes, nevertheless, it could bring employees’ requirements being disregarded or undermined (Budd, 2004). Therefore, employees bond to express their voice appropriately and their interests should be respected. The main way in which workers tend to voice their interests and representations in the workplace is to participate in collective unions so that they could in a position of greater strength; trade unionism...
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...31-mile Eurotunnel beneath the English Channel on the Eurostar train that travels between Britain and the European mainland. A series of breakdowns on five London-bound trains from Brussels which began December 18, 2009 left more than 2,000 passengers stranded for up to 16 hours. Many of those passengers trapped in the dark and overheated tunnel endured serious distress. “Parents had to remove their children’s clothes, leaving them in underwear and diapers. Some passengers suffered stress and panic attacks. Others started feeling ill due to the heat.” Was this just an unfortunate incident for the unlucky passengers who happened to be on those trains or did poor managerial decision making about the operation both the train and the channel tunnel also play a role? An independent review of the incident blamed Eurostar and the operator of the tunnel for being unprepared for severe winter weather. The report said that Eurostar had failed to adequately maintain and winterize its high-speed trains to protect sensitive components from malfunctioning due to excessive snow and moisture buildup. At the time of the Eurostar train breakdowns, severe winter weather had been wreaking havoc on Europe. Airlines, car and truck drivers, and other rail operators across Europe were also suffering from a winter that was on course to be the coldest in more than 30 years. Freezing weather and snow had caused travel problems for days in Northern Europe. In addition, the report criticized Eurotunnel (the...
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...1. PROSES KITARAN PROJEK (PROJECT CYCLE) PENGENALAN 1.1 Secara umumnya pelaksanaan sebarang projek pembangunan akan melibatkan proses kitaran projek (project cycle). Proses kitaran projek adalah satu turutan aktiviti yang dibahagikan mengikut fasa-fasa yang ditetapkan bagi menguruskan pelaksanaan sesuatu projek dari permulaan sehingga akhir. Terdapat empat (4) komponen utama di dalam kitaran tersebut seperti yang ditunjukkan dalam Gambarajah A1 melibatkan perancangan, pelaksanaan, pemantauan dan penyerahan. Walau bagaimanapun apabila membincangkan proses kitaran projek melibatkan projek pembangunan fizikal yang dilaksanakan oleh Kerajaan, terdapat sedikit perbezaan yang mana ia disesuaikan dengan rangka pelaksanaan berdasarkan konsep Rancangan Malaysia Lima Tahun. Beberapa elemen tambahan telah diperkenalkan bagi memberikan nilai tambah seperti yang ditunjukkan dalam Gambarajah A2. Gambarjah A1. Gambarajah A2 1.2 Bagi menghuraikan proses kitaran projek ini, kita akan merujuk kepada Gambarah A2 yang mewakili fasa-fasa sedia ada yang dipraktikkan oleh pelbagai Kementerian dalam melaksanakan projek pembangunan. PERANCANGAN Komponen perancangan mengandungi tiga (3) fasa yang terdiri daripada perkara berikut: (i) Fasa 1 - Mengenal pasti dan menyediakan projek berdasarkan outcome program. (menyediakan LFA dan Logic Framework Matrix) (ii) Fasa 2 - Melaksanakan kajian pra-feasibiliti terhadap semua elemen yang bakal memberi kesan kepada projek...
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...really honored and grateful for the chance to encourage this young man to stay positive and focus on the music that can help him to go through these difficult moments. After his class, 3 other "students" asked if we can meet up to learn some Bob Marley songs. It broke my heart to tell them I'm leaving, but hopefully I'll come back to ‘The Jungle’ one day. Uh, to proudly cheer and clap while my friend is performing his favorite song on the guitar!” This story is by Tinka Kalajzic, a photographer from Croatia. She had been in “the Jungle”, Calais, France, last week helping and documenting the refugees’ conditions there. *“The Jungle” is a crowded makeshift tent camp, housing thousands of refugees, close to the French entrance of the Eurotunnel near the port of Calais, France. Most of them are from Syria, Afghanistan, Eretria, Sudan, Iran and Iraq. They desperately try to reach the United Kingdom where they will claim Asylum. Date: November 1, 2015. Photo: Tinka...
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...In recent years the fear associated with terror and terrorism has been on the rise. The question surrounding this fear is, is the fear real or is it a figment of our imagination blown out of proportion? Since September 11, 2001 terrorism and the potential for terrorism has been blasted relentlessly on television and in our newspaper. The media chooses which events to over publicize or not to publicize based on the amount of fear that can be generated. This type of incident was reflected in the December 2009 Northwest Airlines bomb and Eurostar breakdown. December 25, 2009 a 23 year old Nigerian man named Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, boards a plane from Amsterdam Airport Schiphol in Amsterdam, Netherlands to Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport in Detroit, Michigan, United States. The flight was normal until 20 minutes before the flight was schedule to land, when the 23 year old man lit himself on fire. Passengers heard a loud pop as if a fire cracker had been set off. A passenger aboard the airline along with flight staff subdued the man immediately after the fire had been started. When the attempted to subdue the Nigerian man on fire, his first instinct was to search the man for explosive. After the flight was landed safely the Nigerian man was arrested. After being search a bomb was found in the underwear of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. After careful analysis by specialist, it was found that the underwear bomb was similar to the al-Qaida shoe bombing plot in late...
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...300 Km/h depuis les Années '70. L’Eurotunnel est un tunnel sous la Manche qui permet de relier la France à l’Angleterre par le chemin de fer: il se compose de trois galeries souterraines reliées à une troisième galèerie de service. Le TER est le Train Express Régional qui relie les villes de différentes régions. Le Métro parisien date de1900; il compte 15 lignes urbaines. Le RER (Réseau Express Régional) est un métro extra urbain qui permet de relier Paris à sa banlieue (il correspond au Passante feroviario). A Paris il y a 7 gares ferroviaires (Gares de Lyon, du Nord, de l’Est, d’Austerlitz, Saint-Lazare, Montparnasse, de Bercy). Les trains pour l’Italie partent de la Gare de Lyon; ceux pour l’Angleterre (Eurotunnel) partent de la Gare du Nord ; le TGV Atlantique qui relie Paris aux villes de l’Ouest de la France part de la gare d’Austerlitz. Les transports maritimes. Le bateau était utilisé jusqu’aux années ’60 pour les longues distances (d’Europe à l’Amérique, par exemple), mais aujourd’hui l’avion a remplacé le bateau et celui-ci est utilisé : - comme navette régulière entre deux ports (bateaux de ligne sur les moyennes et courtes distances) : car-ferries ou ferry-boats transportant les passagers et leurs voitures. - pour la navigation de plaisance et en particulier pour les croisières (nées...
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...City University of Hong Kong Associate of Business Administration (Financial Services) | CM 20458Investment Banking | | | Program: Associate of Business Administration (Financial Services) Course: Investment Banking Course Code: CM 20248 Tutorial Group: T03 (Monday) Tutor: Mr. Joseph MOHAN Date of submission: 5 November, 2010 Word Count: | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Investment Banking ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Content * Proposal Purpose……………………………………………… | P. 3 | * Background of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge………. | P. 4 | * Benefit created by the HZMB………………………………… | P. 5 - 6 | * Financing Model of the HZMB……………………………...... | P. 6 – 7 | * Sponsors of the HZMB……………………………………...... | P. 8 | * Syndication Strategy………………………………………….. | P. 9 | * Risk Allocation Strategy. …… . . ……. . .…………………… | P. 10 | * Term Sheet. . . . . . .… . .…… . .…………………… .……… . | P. 11 – 12 | * Potential Risks and Risk Management…………………………. | P. 13 - 14 | * Conclusion……………………………………………………...
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...EF 5010: Economics for Business Semester B 2014 Syllabus LI King King (李景景) Time and Venue Duration: 17January – 25 April 2014 (Every Friday) Time: 7:00PM-9:50PM Venue: AC2 -1503 Instructor Dr. LI King King Department of Economics and Finance Email: likingking@gmail.com Phone: 3442 7604 Office Location: AC2-5102 Personal Webpage: http://likingking.weebly.com/ Office Hours: Friday 5:00PM-6:00PM or through appointment via email. Email is always a great way to reach me. Course Website: Available on Blackboard Teaching Assistant WONG Chun Kit Christopher Email: chriwong@cityu.edu.hk Phone: 3442 9980 Office Location: AC1-P7706 Office Hours: Wednesday11:00AM-12:00Noon 1 Course Description The fundamental objective of this course is to introduce to managers the important economic concepts and tools to improve their decision-making and to achieve managerial goals. The course will emphasize the economic way of thinking, and will enable managers to better understand the economic environment in which business decisions are made. Developing innovative solutions to business problems will be encouraged throughout the course. Learning Objectives Ø Apply the tools and theories from microeconomics to perform demand and supply analyses. Ø Identify different market structures. Formulate different pricing strategies under different market structures or consumer characteristics. Ø Apply basic game theoretic models to formulate business strategies such as pricing. Ø Understand...
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...Understanding Organisational Behaviour IB1230 Compare and contrast the contributions of Taylor and Ford to our understanding of organizational behaviour at work Introduction: For this essay it is very important to understand just what organisational behaviour is: ‘the study and application of knowledge about how people, individuals, and groups act in organizations’ (nwlink, 2011). Our early understanding of management can attributed to the work of Taylor and Ford, in particular Taylor can be considered to be the first person to have broken down the concept of management into scientifically backed steps, laying down a blueprint for organisations the world over to follow. Taylor is considered to have fathered the idea of ‘scientific management’, which is also sometimes known as ‘Taylorism’. This is a theory that breaks down every task into small steps, which are then easily analysed and taught, the main purpose being to increase efficiency (BusinessDictionary, 2013). Fordism (the term referring to Ford’s style of work) refers to a management style ‘based on bureaucratic organization, hierarchical decision-making with strict functional specialization and tightly defined job design (scientific management) and specialized machinery to mass produce a standard product for mass markets’ (McKinlay & Starkey, 1998, p.113). There are five main elements in organisational behaviour: leadership, motivation principles, team & teamwork, managing organisational conflict, politics & negotiation...
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