Four takeover bids to save Atos

Atos, the former flagship of French Tech, which is set to be one of the tech pillars of this summer’s Paris Games, announced last week that it needs 1.1 billion euros of liquidity for its operations in 2024-25. It also said it wants to reduce its debt by 3.2 billion euros, which currently stands at around 5 billion.

The board of directors said it had received four proposals for financial restructuring of the company. These proposals come from a group of shareholders and creditors of the company, investment fund Bain Capital, Czech businessman Daniel Kretinsky (once involved in discussions to buy part of Atos before negotiations broke down in February), fund ally Attestor and, finally, Onepoint, the largest shareholder of the group in a consortium with the investment company of businessman Walter Butler.

“The board decided, together with the management of the group and after agreement with the mediator Hélène Bourboulou, not to continue negotiations with Bain Capital, since the proposal presented does not meet the stated goals of the company to take into account its entire perimeter,” Athos said.

The remaining proposals, which have not been detailed, will be studied until the end of May with the aim of reaching a final agreement on financial restructuring by July 2024.

“Radical Change”

According to rumors, these proposals will be very different. Atos’ creditors would be willing to immediately inject €1.2 billion to breathe a breath of fresh air into the group in 2024 and 2025. They could also convert some of their debt into action and join forces with buyers, provided the debt is not fully repaid. erased For his part, Daniil Kretinsky would be ready to write off 4 billion debts. Finally, OnePoint would like to retain Atos’ entire stake and write off around €3 billion of debt.

However, the group warns that the solution would lead to “radical changes” to its capital structure with the issuance of new shares, leading to “massive dilution” of its shareholders. In other words, they will see the share they occupy in society decrease dramatically.

Meanwhile, these three proposals are in any case compatible with the state’s letter of intent aimed at protecting sovereign assets, Atos points out. Atos, meanwhile, said it had entered into talks with the state after the government said last week it wanted to acquire the company’s sovereign operations or bring in French companies to provide them. The company’s sovereign activities primarily involve supercomputing used for nuclear deterrence or cybersecurity.