The headquarters of the French IT group Atos, located in Bezons in Val-d’Oise, April 26, 2024 (AFP/Archives/Ludovic MARIN)
The troubled French IT giant Atos announced Monday that it had received four financial restructuring proposals with a view to its rescue and that it wanted to find a solution “acceptable to them” with its creditors by May 31.
The former flagship of “French Tech”, which must be one of the technological pillars of the Paris Games this summer, announced last week that it needed 1.1 billion euros in liquidity for its activity in 2024 -2025 and want to reduce its gross debt by 3.2 billion euros, which is around 5 billion.
He had left until Friday to send him offers, which were presented on Sunday during a board meeting, he said in a press release.
These four offers come from a group of shareholders and creditors of the company, the investment fund Bain Capital, the Czech businessman Daniel Kretinsky (once in discussions to buy part of Atos before to see negotiations broken off in February) allied with the Attestor fund and, finally, with Onepoint, the group’s largest shareholder in consortium with the investment company of businessman Walter Butler.
“The board decided with the group’s management, and after alignment with conciliator Hélène Bourbouloux, not to continue discussions with Bain Capital, because the proposal submitted did not meet the company’s stated objectives of taking into account all of its perimeter,” Atos said in its press release.
The next step is now to present an offer to creditors before the end of May, with a view to reaching a final financial restructuring agreement by July 2024.
The group warns, however, that the solution found should lead to “radical changes” in its capital structure with the issuance of new shares, which would lead to “massive dilution” of its shareholders. In other words, they would see the share they hold in society melt drastically.
At the same time, Atos announced that it had initiated discussions with the State, after the government revealed last week that it wanted to acquire the company’s sovereign activities.
It also clarified that the proposals received for its financial rescue were “compatible” with the letter of intent sent by the executive.
© 2024 AFP
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