Lda Propose Seafrance Merger

摘要

After SeaFrance announced plans to cut a third of its 1,700 workforce and operate between Calais and Dover with just three vessels, Louis Dreyfus Armateurs confirmed proposals to take control of SNCF's wholly-owned subsidiary and merge it with its own expanding LD Lines ferry operation. LDA say jobs could be kept in an enlarged group bearing the SeaFrance name but incorporating LD Lines' Portsmouth-Le Havre and Newhaven-Dieppe routes and newly-launched services from Dover to Dieppe and Boulogne. This would also enable more efficient use of tonnage with surplus SeaFrance vessels switched to expanding LD services. SeaFrance management had one rescue plan rejected by its Supervisory Board before more drastic mid-February measures that will see 650 jobs lost. There was a€20 million deficit in 2008 andrnas a result of the declining English Channel freight market SeaFrance has been losing€3 million a month since October. The aim is to return the company to a break-even position by the end of next year.