DFDS CEO considered surrender in Battle on the Channel

The dispute on the English Channel was long and hard, and DFDS CEO Niels Smedegaard considered throwing in the towel several times in the process, he says in an interview with ShippingWatch. The opposing party, Eurotunnel, expected the Danish competitor to surrender.

BY JOHANNES HARTKOPF-MIKKELSEN AND KATRINE GRØNVALD RAUN

Losses totaling USD 40.5 million, a long and arduous process, and two vandalized ferries. It was not a straightforward and easy move for DFDS to acquire Eurotunnel-owned MyFerryLink's two ferries on the English Channel, explains DFDS CEO Niels Smedegaard when ShippingWatch meets him at the top floor of the shipping company's headquarters in Copenhagen.

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