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By William Horobin and Thomas Varela

PARIS--Groupe Eurotunnel SA, operator of the Channel Tunnel, said Wednesday that financial market volatility after the U.K.'s vote to leave the European Union will hurt its earnings and cautioned that it is difficult to predict the economic and political impact of Brexit on its business.

Since opening in 1994, more than 366 million passengers--the equivalent of five times the population of the U.K.--have used the tunnel to travel between the U.K. and mainland Europe.

"It is difficult to predict the effect on the macro economic and political environment and therefore on cross-Channel transport and the group's activities," the company said.

For now, the tumble in the value of the pound is the only measurable impact on the company. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization, or Ebitda, fell 2% in the first half to 249 million euros ($275.1 million). Stripping out the impact of foreign exchange, Ebitda would have been up 4%, the company said.

Eurotunnel cut its 2016 Ebitda target to EUR535 million from EUR560 million and the 2017 target to EUR579 million from EUR605 million.

Eurotunnel Chief Executive Jacques Gounon said he remained confident in the outlook for the company and its economic model. "The tunnel has never been as highly utilised as it is today," he said.

Write to William Horobin and Thomas Varela at william.horobin@wsj.com and thomas.varela@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 20, 2016 03:15 ET (07:15 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.