Source: Lloyds List
Channel ferry operator Brittany Ferries has joined compatriot Louis Dreyfus Armateurs in bidding to take over ailing Dover Strait ferry operator SeaFrance.
French secretary of state for transport Dominique Bussereau, who revealed the news today, said that Brittany Ferries had proposed a partial rather than a complete takeover of SeaFrance.
He gave no details but indicated that the offer made by Louis Dreyfus Armateurs, which submitted a formal offer to SeaFrance’s parent, French national rail operator SNCF, last week, had also been partial rather than total.
‘The two are making SeaFrance offers which are not offers of complete takeover but of partial takeover at levels which they must determine,’ he said.
Mr Bussereau revealed that he had already met the chairmen of Brittany Ferries and LDA, respectively Jean-Marc Roué and Philippe Louis-Dreyfus, as well as SNCF chairman Guillaume Pépy.
He said that he had told them that the government, which owns SNCF, would be looking into the situation at SeaFrance.
The ferry operator recently announced plans to axe up to 650 jobs among its 1,700-strong workforce as part of a plan to stop heavy loss-making.
LDA indicated, however, that it hoped to reduce the number of job losses substantially by merging SeaFrance and its own ferry subsidiary LD Lines into a new entity under the SeaFrance name.
Mr Bussereau said that a decision would have to be taken rapidly regarding the takeover offers for the company.
‘This affair must be settled one way or another, with the greatest respect for the personnel, before the end of the month of March,’ he said.
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