On the verge of bankruptcy, the group reached an agreement on Sunday with banks and bondholders.
Neither Layani nor Kretinsky. The intense months-long standoff between the French businessman and the Czech billionaire, each eager to be the leader of the restructuring of Atos, will have produced two losers. The French IT flagship, weakened by a debt of 4.8 billion euros, has finally reached an agreement with its creditors alone. The latter insisted that they did not need anyone to take control of the group, prevent it from going bankrupt and revive it. They had reached a good agreement with David Layani on June 11, but the consortium led by the boss of Onepoint finally gave up last Tuesday. The creditors, however, refused to do business with Daniel Kretinsky, who was demanding too much debt waiver.
According to the agreement reached on Sunday with the management of Atos, the creditor banks (starting with Deutsche Bank and Barclays) and the bondholders (including the ECB and AG2R La Mondiale) will hold between 74.% and 99.9% of the capital of Atos following the abandonment of 3.1 billion in debt, the contribution of 1.5 to 1.675 billion in new receivables and a capital increase of 233 million euros, open to current Atos shareholders. The objective is to open an accelerated financial safeguard procedure before the start of the Olympics.
Creditors have already launched a headhunt to find a new Chairman of the Board of Atos and new CEO. The latter will be tasked with restructuring the group and finding a strategic future for it. However, Atos does not have a controlling industrial shareholder. Creditors are not opposed to the entry into the capital of an industrial company, which could buy back the shares held by future shareholders.
