Until Wednesday, David Layani was to become the boss of Atos, but in two days, everything changed: his company Onepoint wants to withdraw from the capital of the French IT group in difficulties after having given up on taking it back, and he himself resigns from board of directors.
These announcements made early Friday are a new episode in the incredible saga of Atos’ descent into hell. Once the flagship of French IT, the group today carries a colossal debt and is fighting for its survival.
The representatives of Onepoint, its president David Layani and Helen Lee Bouygues are resigning “with immediate effect from the board of directors” of Atos, the group said in a brief press release.
Mr. Layani and Ms. Lee Bouygues also informed Atos “of their intention to withdraw Onepoint from the capital.” Both had joined the board of directors of Atos at the end of February, of which Onepoint is the largest shareholder with more than 11% of the capital.
On the Paris Stock Exchange, Atos shares fell around 9:15 a.m., losing more than 8%.
– Defense and politics –
Chosen on June 11 to take over Atos and try to save it, the consortium led by Onepoint threw in the towel on Wednesday, to everyone’s surprise. This leaves the way open for Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky to resume discussions, while he had initially been rejected.
Mired in a financial crisis for almost three years, Atos, which is now worth barely more than one euro on the stock market, initiated a restructuring procedure in February.
It had announced that it would need 1.1 billion euros in liquidity for its activity in 2024-2025 and wanted to massively reduce its gross debt, by 4.8 billion euros, to safeguard its activity.
Atos will be a technological pillar of the Paris Olympics this summer, and its future also has a strong political dimension linked to its strategic activities in the field of defense (army equipment or supercomputers used for the French nuclear deterrent).
The consortium led by Onepoint announced on Wednesday that it was throwing in the towel after “noting that the conditions were not met to conclude an agreement paving the way for a lasting solution for financial restructuring and implementation.”
For its part, Atos then indicated that it had received from its creditors “a revised global financial restructuring proposal”.
In addition, Mr. Kretinsky’s investment company, EPEI, sent “a letter reiterating its interest in participating in its financial restructuring.”
Having been in discussions for a long time to buy part of Atos before negotiations broke down in February, the Czech businessman revised his offer twice to David Layani’s consortium, without success.
– L’empire Kretinsky –
As publicly discreet as he is active on the markets, Mr. Kretinsky is building an empire in Europe, in energy, distribution and the media.
According to Forbes, he is at the head of a fortune of 8.6 billion euros built thanks to fossil fuels, coal and gas, with his historic company, EPH, the largest energy group in Central Europe.
Present in distribution, with the French companies Casino and Fnac-Darty, the British Sainsbury’s, the American Foot Locker and the German Metro, it is in the process of buying the British postal operator Royal Mail and acquired 20% at the end of April of the steel activities of the German steelmaker Thyssenkrupp.
In France, his CMI media group is in the process of selling the weekly Marianne to the Catholic and conservative billionaire Pierre-Edouard Stérin, but the process became contentious on Thursday. Put off by press reports claiming that Mr. Stérin had links to the RN, the editorial staff opposed his buying the magazine and went on strike on Friday morning.
In the section concerning its sensitive defense activities, Atos announced on Wednesday that it had “finalized” the negotiation with the French State “of an agreement aimed at protecting the interests of sovereignty” of the latter. In short, the aim is to prevent these activities from falling into the hands of foreign actors.
In mid-June, the state made an offer of 700 million euros to buy Atos’ activities deemed strategic and sensitive, including supercomputers, contracts with the French army and cybersecurity products.
