Shuffle and deal
THE high-stake poker game at Eurotunnel is working out as the odds have for long suggested. All three players — the com- pany, the contractors, the banks — have bid as far as they can on busted flushes. As City and Suburban observed three months ago: 'Three losing hands do not make for a showdown. It is far more likely that all the players will put more chips in the pot and move on to the next round.' They can all count themselves unlucky in that they had hoped to start work in the agreeable low-cost conditions of a slump in the construction business, and perhaps their time has come. The indicator to watch remains Eurotunnel's share price, which, fully discounting a return to shareholders for more money, still stands at twice the original offer price. That is not the mark of a business in trouble.
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