Creditors had until Thursday to comment while shareholders, who will be massively diluted at the end of the procedure, voted on Friday.
Airbnb: the Council of State cancels the maintenance of the tax loophole
The Council of State canceled the paragraph allowing Airbnb type rentals to continue to benefit from a tax loophole cut in error by the government in the finance law for 2024, acceding to a request from professional tourism organizations
Weighed down by a colossal gross debt of nearly 5 billion euros, the former “tech” flagship entered an accelerated safeguard procedure in July which should allow it to get its head above water, notably with the implementation of its restructuring plan, the amount of which reached 1.75 billion euros. After the withdrawal at the end of June of the consortium led by Onepoint, the first shareholder of Atos initially chosen to carry out this rescue, the creditors and the banks agreed to take over the company themselves.
Their agreement notably includes a capital increase of 233 million euros and a debt reduction of around 3 billion euros. The next step will be the decision of the commercial court on the approval of the accelerated safeguard procedure which should fall at the end of October.
Cascading Challenges
These legal milestones having passed, numerous challenges await Atos, whose shares have fallen by 90% in one year and are worth 0.70 euros. Starting with a revival of activity which appears to be at half mast for the moment. The group of more than 90,000 employees worldwide had to revise downwards its projections for the period 2024-2027 after the catastrophic results of the first half.
Atos now expects revenue of €9.7 billion in 2024, down 4% from 2023. It also expects cash interest expense, cash generation and a financing leverage lower than expected over the period.
It must be said that the group suffered a net loss of 1.9 billion euros in the first half after significant asset write-downs and the end of customer contracts in the Americas region.
Atos hopes for an influx of new money with the sale of its activities considered strategic and sensitive to the French state – in particular supercomputers used for the French nuclear deterrent, contracts with the French army and cybersecurity products – for 700 million euros. But this sum must be used to repay the debt as a priority according to the terms of the restructuring plan.
The group also recently announced new contracts with RATP and the European Space Agency. Not sure, however, that this compensates for the loss of huge contracts like that of the Olympic Games, for which Atos was the technological pillar for the 2024 edition and with which it had collaborated for 35 years.
If the Paris Olympics went off without a hitch, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has decided that it will now support the American Deloitte, starting with the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy. A hard blow for Atos.
