Euro Disney 'doubles losses to £40m'

TROUBLED Paris theme park operator Euro Disney looks set to announce near-doubled losses of e58m (£40.3m) for last year.

The Euronext-quoted group, which is in talks with its parent Walt Disney Company of the US and bankers owed e1.2bn over a voluntary debt restructuring, today confirmed that papers detailing provisional figures, obtained by French newspaper Le Parisien, were genuine.

'Euro Disney confirms that the forecast financial results for fiscal year 2003 mentioned in the article were contained in internal documents,' it said.

But the company declined to confirm that the net loss for the year to 30 September would be e58m, against a loss of e33.1m for 2002. 'We will release the figures after they have been audited,' said spokesman Pieter Boterman.

According to Le Parisien, attendance at Disneyland Resort Paris, Europe's top tourist destination located on the Eurostar train route at Marne-la-Vallee, fell 600,000 last year to 12.5m visitors.

That was about two million lower than expected, despite the opening of a second theme park on the site, Walt Disney Studios, in March.

Euro Disney has been seeking a voluntary debt deal with its bankers since 1 August, when it warned it could not repay a £116m loan due to its 39.1% owner, and was in breach of banking covenants. Shares in Euro Disney eased one cent to e0.58.