A small group of French shareholders in Eurotunnel began a court case last week to try and oust the management, which they accuse of being incompetent and overpaid.

The group, Adacte, accuses the Eurotunnel directors of taking on too much debt, running the share price down and paying themselves too much.

It is asking a Paris commercial court for permission to call general assembly of all shareholders to demand the management step down and be replaced by other directors who would turn the business around.

Adacte is associated with two French businessmen investors, Nicolas Miguet and Francois Gontier, in the case.

Financial institutions hold 51 per cent of the shares in Eurotunnel, while individual investors hold 43 per cent and banks hold the remaining six per cent.

The chief executive of the Eurotunnel, Richard Shirrefs, said last week he was “not disposed” to call a general assembly because there was no alternative management team ready and because “even the aims of Mr Miguet don’t seem at all clear to us.”

Eurotunnel has said a big debt refinancing would be needed in coming years after reporting a six per cent fall in third quarter revenues to 210.1m euros from a recalculated 224m euros in the same period last year.

It said that in the coming years revenue would not be enough to help pay off the massive debt the company piled up building the tunnel linking France and Britain under the English Channel.