At Atos, the dizzying cost of financial and legal advice

The financial restructuring of Atos is nearing completion. The IT group announced, Monday December 2, the conclusion of its capital increase, the last part of the safeguard procedure opened on July 24.

Its shareholders, discouraged by the 90% drop in shares in one year, did not rush to participate: they only contributed 68 million euros out of the 233 million targeted by the company. The difference was made up by the creditors, who became the new owners of Atos.

Intended to finance the general needs of the group, this sum will be almost entirely swallowed up by the fees paid to the dozens of advisers (lawyers, bankers, independent experts, consultants, etc.) involved in this restructuring: according to the operation note published by Atos, they amount to 168 million euros for the year 2024, of which 138 million remains to be paid.

Financial restructuring

“This estimate includes financial intermediary fees, legal and administrative costs” pour “around 130 million euros”details the document. To this are added the “miscellaneous commissions due to creditors”banks and bondholders, “having participated in the negotiation of the terms of the financial restructuring” : they will receive 38 million euros, divided between nearly 23 million commissions “for the diligence undertaken” and 15 million for agreeing to participate in the agreement.

These expenses come in addition to the 553 million euros in costs paid by the group in two and a half years to implement a plan for the legal separation of its activities which ultimately never came to fruition.

Asked by The WorldAtos does not comment on the amount of expenses linked to the financial restructuring, but recalls that “these practices are in line with market standards”. “The amount is not shocking and is average in view of the 2.8 billion euros of debt eliminated or converted into shares and the contribution of new money of 1.6 billion, the largest ever made in France in this type of operation »defends one of the many lawyers involved in the Atos case.

“American standards”

The sum paid by the IT group confirms the recent inflation of financial restructuring costs. In the cases of Casino and Orpea, the two other major operations of the last two years, the expenses also amounted to hundreds of millions of euros (132 million for the first, 118 million for the second), while in 2021 the financial restructuring of Vallourec cost only 67 million euros. With its 24 billion euros of debt currently being renegotiated, Altice France could break records.

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