PARIS (Reuters) – Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky, currently in negotiations to acquire part of Atos, intends to maintain a “minority” and “passive” stake in the French group, his spokesman said on Thursday.
Earlier in the day, some French parliamentarians had expressed concern about such a sale, believing that it could compromise the independence of France’s nuclear deterrent. Atos announced this week that it was in talks with Daniel Kretinsky as part of a a €2 billion sale of its historic, but loss-making businesses, which will refocus the struggling company on cybersecurity and cloud computing while reducing its debt. An agreement would also grant Kretinsky a 7.5% stake in the division that Atos would keep, and which would be renamed Eviden.
A group of deputies and senators Les Républicains, however, published a column in Le Figaro dated Thursday, in which they are concerned about a transfer which could bring down the supercomputers used for the calculation of virtual nuclear tests under foreign control. “The hypothesis of seeing such a powerful foreign actor come close to our ultra-sensitive military capabilities deserves all our attention”, writes the group led by Senator Cédric Perrin, vice-president of the Foreign Affairs and defense of the Senate. Only the government can block the sale of businesses.
“We will not increase our share (in Eviden) beyond the announced threshold and we will not play any active role of any kind let alone exercise control,” Daniel Kretinsky’s spokesman said in a statement. addressed to Reuters.
Daniel Kretinsky, however, wants to be a very long-term shareholder in the Tech Foundation division, which includes the historical activities of Atos.
“The concern of parliamentarians is legitimate, but it is based on an assumption that will not be verified,” explained the spokesperson for the Czech billionaire.
“We fully understand the strategic importance of Eviden’s services for France and we intend to absolutely respect national sovereignty in this matter,” he added.
Neither the Ministry of Economy and Finance nor Atos wished to comment. Daniel Kretinsky has embarked on a buying spree in France, setting his sights on assets ranging from Casino to Vivendi’s Editis publishing group. “There is a history which shows that when you are in the minority you can quickly become the majority. The real problem is sovereignty”, explains Cédric Perrin to Reuters. The parliamentarians were surprised that the offer of another buyer, a consortium of French companies Astek and ChapsVision, had not been given more consideration. A source close to Astek points out that Atos’ cybersecurity business, which includes the former Bull company that makes France’s supercomputers, also houses other sensitive assets crucial to the interests of French intelligence services.
(Report Michel Rose, MathieuRosemain, Sharon Singleton, French version Corentin Chapron, edited by Nicolas Delame and Camille Raynaud)
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