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The French Commercial Court in Paris yesterday decided to make a final pronouncement on the future of English Channel ferry company Seafrance ordering the cessation of activities and  stating that the proposed takeover by a workers’ cooperative (SCOP) was not viable.

In its verbal judgement, the Court in Paris said "No valid takeover offer exists and trading cannot be continued. The offer made by the SCOP is not significantly different from the previous offer and has the serious disadvantage of not providing the necessary funding to carry out the proposed plan. Accordingly, the company cannot continue to trade due to lack of liquidity and the court shall therefore terminate trading activity of the Seafrance company.”

As we reported yesterday morning, following the unexpected support of the operator of the Channel Tunnel, Eurotunnel which, belatedly, had backed the SCOP lawyers for Seafrance’s 880 French employees had requested a postponement of the Commercial Court’s decision, but were not followed by the court. Such a postponement is not "consistent with the urgency of the decision which requires to be made," argued the judges.

Travellers with outstanding reservations should contact Seafrance via the customer service number +44 (0) 845 458 0666. The indications are that there will be a refund of any pre-paid unhonoured booking.

Following the Commercial Court’s judgement, the assets of Seafrance will now be realised for the best price achievable. That would allow Eurotunnel or other ferry companies such as DFDS or LD Lines, both of whom had showed an earlier interest in acquiring the whole undertaking of Seafrance, to acquire specific Seafrance assets the most important of which are the relatively modern Seafrance ships. More significantly, with Seafrance in liquidation, any bidder for the Seafrance fleet would not necessarily be bound by the Transfer of Undertakings Regulations which means a bleak future for Seafrance employees.

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