Atos in difficulty: lenders and banks made a joint refinancing offer

Lenders and banks at struggling French IT giant Atos have submitted a joint refinancing proposal to the group weighed down by heavy debt and without new cash to sustain its operations, a source close to the matter said on Saturday.

Former flagship French Tech, which is set to be one of the tech pillars of the Paris Games this summer, announced on Monday that it needs 1.1 billion euros of liquidity for its operations in 2024-2025 and wants to reduce its gross debt by 3.2 billion euros, that’s about 5 billion. He gave his lenders until Friday to submit refinancing proposals.

“Banks and bondholders (creditors) have submitted a joint proposal,” a source close to Atos debt holders told AFP, adding that they “supported the group and provided the latter with the necessary liquidity.” According to the same source, this joint proposal “could be fully compatible” with the arrival of a benchmark investor if it “is part of the creditors’ proposal.”

No other details about this proposal have been disclosed at this time. We contacted Athos, but did not respond immediately.

The government wants to help

The state expressed its interest over the weekend, sending the group a letter of intent to indicate its interest in its sovereign activities – an initiative which Atos said it welcomed with “satisfaction”.

The activities pursued by the executive include, among other things, supercomputers used for nuclear deterrence and cybersecurity products. Bercy also indicated that the government wants to bring other French players into its approach.

His call was heeded by French data analytics company Chapsvision, which swung into action on Friday, saying it was interested in some of the activities being pursued by the state, in particular the MCS subsidiary, which includes, for example, a communications security system. networks on board the Dassault Rafale “F4” aircraft. On Tuesday, Thales also suggested it might be interested in the same activity.