When Jacques Gounon, Eurotunnel's executive chairman, announced details of his plan to restructure the Channel tunnel operator on May 31, he did so at a conference centre overlooking Paris's Arc de Triomphe.

It seemed like a good choice. There had been widespread scepticism about whether Mr Gounon could successfully negotiate a restructuring of Eurotunnel's £6.18bn (€9.09bn) debt with the mainly Anglo-American financial institutions that dominate the key debt levels in the middleof the company's capital structure.