The objective is to prevent them from falling into the hands of foreign actors.
The State comes to the aid of Atos. With an offer of 700 million euros, the state wishes to buy Atos’ activities deemed strategic and sensitive, including supercomputers used for nuclear deterrence, the French IT group, which is in the process of restructuring, said in a press release on Friday. This offer aims to prevent these activities, which affect the sovereignty of France, from falling into the hands of foreign actors. It comes two days after the choice of the consortium led by Onepoint for the takeover of Atos.
The State’s proposal, formulated in a “non-binding confirmatory offer letter”concerned “the potential acquisition of 100% of the Advanced Computing, Mission-Critical Systems and Cybersecurity Products activities of the BDS (Big Data & Cybersecurity) division” of Atos, the group said. These activities include supercomputers used for nuclear deterrence, contracts with the French army and cybersecurity products. “This non-binding confirmatory offer concerns a global enterprise value of 700 million euros”continued Atos.
A need of 1.1 billion euros in liquidity for 2024-2025
Mired in a financial crisis for almost three years, which caused its share price to fall below 1 euro, the group initiated a restructuring procedure in February. It had announced that it needed 1.1 billion euros in liquidity for 2024-2025 and wanted to reduce its gross debt by 3.2 billion euros, which reached 4.8 billion euros, to safeguard its activity.
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The state’s offer was expected by mid-June. The indicative value of these activities was estimated between 700 million and one billion euros, Atos indicated at the end of April at the start of discussions with the State on their acquisition. “No certainty can be provided as to the outcome of the negotiations and the conclusion of a definitive agreement between the parties”, warned Atos in its press release. Its board of directors, under the aegis of conciliator Hélène Bourbouloux, and its management “will discuss this proposal with the State”.
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“We will do everything to protect the part of so-called ultrasensitive assets, but we will be very vigilant to ensure that they are not sold off”, David Layani, boss of Onepoint, told Echoes on Wednesday, after winning the competition for the takeover of Atos against Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky. In its press release, Atos confirms “its objective to reach a definitive financial restructuring agreement with the Onepoint consortium and its financial creditors, which will then be implemented through a dedicated accelerated procedure, by July”.
A global IT partner of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) since 2002, Atos will be one of the technological pillars of the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. He will be responsible for managing accreditations, instant dissemination of results and even cybersecurity.
