The Pontoise Commercial Court has appointed business rescue specialist Hlne Bourbouloux as ad hoc agent to help the French group Atos negotiate with its creditor banks, a source close to the matter told AFP on Thursday.
The working meetings have started, this source said. Forced to negotiate with its 22 creditor banks, Atos, faced with a wall of debt, with 3.65 billion euros of loans and bonds to be repaid or refinanced before the end of 2025, announced on Monday that it had requested such support.
Accustomed to conciliation procedures, Me Hlne Bourbouloux has notably worked on the Casino, Orpa and Presstalis cases.
The former flagship of French tech, which saw its financial rating downgraded at the end of January by the S&P agency, has had a series of disappointments for several years. On Monday, he also announced abandon a capital increase project supposed to bring him a breath of oxygen.
Discussions with Airbus
At the same time, the group said it was continuing its negotiations with Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky for the takeover of Tech Foundations, the entity which brings together the historic outsourcing activities. And this without certainty that they will reach an agreement, Atos repeated. Caution already expressed at the beginning of January.
The group is also continuing its discussions with Airbus for the sale of its big data and security (BDS) activities. He opened a due diligence phase (consultation of accounts, Editor’s note) prior to negotiations. Atos had indicated that the enterprise value of the perimeter concerned was valued between 1.5 and 1.8 billion euros.
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The company, which has recently undergone several governance changes, will also have to face an information mission to the Senate, the work of which should begin in February. While it was trading around 75 euros at the start of 2021, before the exit of the IT group (110,000 employees) from the CAC 40 stock index in September of the same year, Atos shares have lost more than 90% of their valueto barely reach 3 euros, the lowest level in its history.