UPDATE 1-Eurotunnel traffic down, issues new shares

* First-quarter revenue down 34 percent

* Issues new shares to absorb TNU

PARIS, April 17 (Reuters) - Cross-channel rail tunnel operator Eurotunnel reported a big dent in first-quarter revenue Friday, blaming a fire in September that damaged one of its tunnels and seriously reduced shuttle and train services.

The group recently said it had met some financial targets under its debt recovery plan that was sealed in 2007 and saw the creation of the new Groupe Eurotunnel SA (GETP.PA), in which former creditors such as banks became share owners.

GET SA will now issue 178,730 new ordinary shares as consideration for the merger of TNU SA into GET SA as part of a simplificiation of the corporate structure.

TNU SA, based in France, is the former Eurotunnel SA company that changed its name after the 2007 debt deal.

GET said TNU assets had a gross value of some 5 million euros. But after 4.5 million in depreciation and provisions, the net value was 622,531,934 euros, against liabilities of 475,738,031 euros.

Eurotunnel reported first-quarter operating revenue of 116 million euros ($152.1 million), down 34 percent. It obtained 29 million euros from its insurers for the September fire.

"The consequences of the fire in 2008 are still visible in these results for the first quarter of 2009," Chairman Jacques Gounon said in a statement.

Eurotunnel closed 2.5 percent up at 4.10 euros, for a gain this year of 3.9 percent. The shares dropped 62 percent in 2008.

The European Investment Bank has a 2.47 percent stake in GET (Reporting by Marcel Michelson; editing by John Wallace)