EMERAUDE’S parent company, Sogestran, is trying to find a way of returning to the St Malo sea route, Jersey’s Economic Development Minister has been told.

At a meeting held at the end of last week, Sogestran’s finance director Alain Detry told Senator Philip Ozouf of the the group’s desire to find an economical and profitable solution that will ensure the future of Emeraude Ferries in the long term.

The parent company is currently investigating different possibilities to enable it to resume sailing from the Island to St Malo.

However, as reported yesterday, Senator Ozouf set a deadline of the end of January for the company to outline its intentions for the rest of 2006.

Currently, all sailings are suspended until the end of February at the earliest.

It was agreed that more news would be forthcoming from the ferry company onwers by the end of next month.

Sogestran has appointed a consultant to examine how Emeraude can be run more economically.

The man undertaking the exercise, Jean-Paul Jerome, was also at the meeting.