This year, Eurotunnel, operator of the under-sea rail link connecting the UK and France, paid its first dividend in its two-decade history. Since its creation in 1986 it has been dogged by a huge debt load – a legacy of mounting construction costs and worse than expected traffic.

Since it won the bid to operate and build the tunnel in 1986, Eurotunnel has had several debt restructurings but its ultimate debt restructuring, which more than halved its £6.2bn ($10.1bn) in borrowings, was sealed by a Paris court on January 15, 2007. The deal tested France’s new insolvency regime, designed to improve the country’s financially troubled companies’ chances of turnround.