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Atos shares fell on the Paris Stock Exchange on Monday, with a trader raising concerns over calls from MPs to nationalize the struggling IT group.
At 1:30 p.m., Atos shares fell 11.31% to 4.1490 euros after having lost up to 15.1%.
Les Républicains MP Olivier Marleix tabled an amendment on Friday in the 2024 finance bill, currently under debate in the National Assembly, for “a temporary total nationalization of Atos”.
“This choice is motivated by the threats of acquisition from Daniel Kretinsky and the major changes planned for the group,” is written in the motion visible on the National Assembly website.
“Once this temporary phase is completed, the State would consider reselling these strategic assets to French companies.”
For his part, the socialist deputy Philippe Brun announced on dismantling”.
“We cannot let a foreign company take control of these activities that are absolutely essential for our national independence,” he adds.
A finance ministry source told Reuters on Monday that the government was not considering a nationalization of Atos.
In great difficulty, 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.
The project is contested by minority shareholders as well as certain political leaders, leading last week to the departure of the chairman of the board of directors.
The project unveiled at the beginning of August between Atos and Daniel Kretinsky provides for the businessman, who has recently increased investments in France, to take control of Tech Foundations for two billion euros.
The agreement also concerns a 7.5% stake for Daniel Kretinsky in the division that Atos would retain, renamed Eviden.
(Written by Blandine Hénault, with contributions from Danilo Masoni, Michal Aleksandrowicz, Tassilo Hummel, Bertrand Boucey and Leigh Thomas, edited by Kate Entringer)