Atos stock stalls after jumping 12%
(Updated with stock price reversal, “no comment” from Onepoint)
by Blandine Henault
PARIS, January 3 (Reuters) – Atos announced on Wednesday that it had launched a due diligence phase with Airbus for the purchase of its BDS (Big data & security) business for which the European aircraft manufacturer is proposing an enterprise value of between 1.5 billion and 1.8 billion euros.
“Currently at a preliminary stage”, discussions concern “the entire BDS scope”, indicates the company in a press release.
Airbus had already shown interest in taking a 29.9% stake in Atos’ digital and cybersecurity activities before abandoning the project last March.
In an email to Reuters, an Airbus spokesperson confirmed a non-binding offer to take over Atos’ BDS division.
“The acquisition of BDS could significantly accelerate Airbus’ digital transformation, enhance the company’s defense and security portfolio with strong capabilities in cyber, advanced computing and artificial intelligence, and support the leaf Airbus’ roadmap for decarbonization,” Airbus said.
In its press release, Atos specifies that it has received two letters indicating non-binding expressions of interest in its BDS activity, one of which concerns part of the scope of the division. Atos did not specify who this latest offer came from.
The subject of recurring speculation about possible interest, Thales said it wanted to put an end to “the questions and fantasies” to Reuters on Wednesday.
“Thales does not intend to diversify into markets other than those where it is already present,” said a spokesperson for the group, recalling that Thales has already bought the American cybersecurity company Imperva and is focused on its integration.
UNCERTAINTIES ABOUT TECH FOUNDATIONS
On the Paris Stock Exchange, Atos shares fell 6.86% to 6.51 euros at 12:00 p.m. after gaining up to 12% at the very start of the session. Airbus fell at the same time by 1.55%.
Faced with significant financial difficulties, Atos has decided to split its historical IT consulting activities and those in cybersecurity.
The Tech Foundations branch, bringing together IT consulting activities, is to be sold to the EPEI group of Czech businessman Daniel Kretinsky while Atos plans to keep the cybersecurity activities, which bring together the BDS branch, in a new entity called Eviden.
At the end of November, Atos said it was renegotiating its agreement with Daniel Kretinsky on Tech Foundations while the operation is contested by certain shareholders, including the main Onepoint, as well as by political leaders, who fear the loss of assets considered strategic for the benefit of a foreign company.
The operation provided for Tech Foundations to be sold to EPEI for two billion euros, in exchange for a 7.5% stake from Daniel Kretinsky in Eviden via a capital increase of 900 million euros.
But on Wednesday, Atos indicated that the initially planned size of Eviden’s capital increase would be reduced, paving the way for Daniel Kretinsky not to ultimately enter the capital.
“The company is examining with EPEI the legal and financial conditions under which EPEI could be released, in whole or in part, from its commitment” to participate in the capital increase, specifies Atos.
“MORE TIME THAN EXPECTED”
Atos Chief Financial Officer Paul Saleh acknowledged Wednesday in a conference call with reporters that exclusive negotiations with EPEI were “taking a little longer than expected.”
Discussions are continuing on the price to pay, the structure of the operation and the transfer of a very large part of the liabilities attached to Tech Foundations, he said.
“Like any negotiation, there is no certainty that it will lead to an agreement,” added the financial director.
The discussions on the sale of BDS like those on Tech Foundations come at a time when Atos is facing difficulties in meeting its financial deadlines.
Faced with the reduction in the size of the planned capital increase, Atos plans to go “well beyond” the 400 million euro asset disposal program presented in July, including with the sale of its BDS division or other complementary assets if the transaction with EPEI does not go through.
At the same time, the company is discussing with its banks to ensure its refinancing and does not rule out using legal protection mechanisms to supervise these negotiations.
“First we are going to initiate these discussions (…) and we cannot comment on these measures themselves, but just to say that there are quite a few who can facilitate, in case we need, these discussions and also accelerate them,” explained financial director Paul Saleh.
Contacted by Reuters, Onepoint, which owns 11.4% of Atos, declined to comment. The French company, led by David Layani, made an offer in 2022 for BDS on the basis of an enterprise value of 4.2 billion euros but the proposal was then rejected by Atos. (With Gaëlle Sheehan, Dagmarah Mackos and Michal Aleksandrowicz, edited by Jean-Stéphane Brosse and Kate Entringer)
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