(Boursier.com) — Unsurprisingly, Atos is the dunce cap of the week on the SBF120 with a fall of around 40%! Long-awaited, the presentation of the new strategic plan has finally weighed down a title that has been in dire straits for many months. The digital services specialist announced its upcoming split into two separate listed companies: SpinCo (Evidian), which would concentrate Big Data and Security (BDS) activities and would be led by Philippe Oliva, and Tech Foundations (TFCo, Atos), bringing together the group’s declining historic IT services activities. This split would “unlock value” as part of a larger plan estimated to cost 1.6 billion euros in 2022-2023.
Rodolphe Belmer, who arrived at the head of the group at the start of the year, is already going to leave the ship because he has not been able to convince his Board of Directors. The departure of the former boss of Eutelsat was announced an hour before the “capital markets day”, which investors hoped would restore confidence, after a series of setbacks which melted the stock market value of Atos by two-thirds over the past year.
The activities of Atos, including the manufacture of supercomputers and software used by the army and the Ministry of Finance, are considered strategic by the French government. A finance ministry official said this week that the government was closely monitoring developments and noted that strategic assets were protected from hostile takeovers by a foreign investment screening decree.
Taking note of these announcements, analysts have been unleashed on the file in recent days like Bryan Garnier who cut his target from 24 to 13 euros and reiterated his opinion ‘sell’. The broker considers that the planned split from Evidian eliminates speculation on the Big Data & Security business. In addition, if this split can be an attractive “exit door” for Atos shareholders, the time required to complete the operation makes the title unattractive for the next 12 months. Atos will have to face many obstacles before the conclusion of the operation, and the absence of a CEO at the level of the group until the split becomes effective can constitute a burden, according to the specialist.
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