Eurotunnel rebels led by bankrupt, would-be politician

PARIS, April 7 (AFP) – The man who led opposition shareholders in their revolt against Eurotunnel directors is 43-year-old editor Nicolas Miguet, a right-wing would-be politician who some say could use the event to serve his own ambitions.

A year of fighting via his investor weekly BoursePlus has contributed greatly to an expected shareholders’ overthrow of the troubled Channel rail tunnel operator’s board.

“We are revolutionising corporate governance in France,” Miguet said in welcoming provisional results of the vote ahead of the general shareholders meeting on Wednesday.

But Miguet must also tend to his own image as a result of four weeks in jail in the late 1990s following a bankruptcy, and a court order forbidding him from running a company between 1997 and 2002.

He was convicted this year of slandering Eurotunnel executives and has remained in the background since, affirming that he is not interested in a place on the Eurotunnel board for himself.

Miguet intended to run as a right-wing candidate for the French presidency in the 2002 elections, but he failed to collect the required number of sponsors.

On Wednesday, Eurotunnel shareholders appeared likely to sack and replace the current board at the meeting.

Shareholders’ anger at the long-term slump of their investment fomented a rebellion that was climaxing in the vote to decide who will run the debt-ridden British-French company.