2024-01-03 16:30:49
The Atos logo, on a company building in Nantes, March 11, 2022. STEPHANE MAHE / REUTERS
The new year has barely started when the sale by apartment of the French IT champion Atos is launched. The group announced on Wednesday January 3 that it had entered into discussions with Airbus for the sale of its cybersecurity activities grouped within its big data and cybersecurity branch (BDS). On the occasion of the opening of this so-called “due diligence” phase, the detailed examination of the accounts of the company to be sold, Atos announced that “ the indicative offer » of Airbus values BDS of “1.5 to 1.8 billion euros [et] covers the entire BDS scope ». For the moment, the discussions are only at one “preliminary stage”, tempered the IT group. A caution shared by Airbus, which specifies that it “it is not certain that they will result in an agreement or transaction”.
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If Atos is starting the year with a bang, it is because the IT group must act quickly to get out of debt. The company must repay or refinance 3.65 billion euros of loans and bonds maturing by the end of 2025. Faced with its difficulties, Atos had also announced in 2022 that it wanted to split into two entities: Tech Foundations (its outsourcing activity), which might be sold to Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky, and Eviden, the most strategic, which includes BDS. Mr. Kretinsky might also obtain a minority share (7.5%) of Eviden.
The announcement is therefore important. Moreover, Atos considers that this sale of assets will “well beyond the 400 million euros mentioned in the press release of July 28, 2023, in order to honor its financing deadlines”. Indeed, this sale is not the first attempt by the IT group. Already, in the spring of 2023, the name Airbus had been mentioned. At the time, said a person close to the matter, Atos, which had launched a major strategic plan with a broad review of its assets, wanted to sell 29.9% of Eviden’s shares. After some preliminary work, the European aircraft manufacturer finally decided not to follow through. Airbus was not entirely convinced that it was in its interest to become a minority shareholder in a company experiencing serious financial difficulties.
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Less than a year later, the situation has changed, the scope of the sale has been modified and the part put up for sale “was the most important thing in Eviden”we know from those around Airbus, which is particularly eyeing supercomputers, secure communications and cybersecurity.
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