He had arrived, urgently, in January, to try to restore a group in loss of direction. Less than six months later, Rodolphe Belmer threw in the towel. Atos announced Tuesday, June 14 in the morning the resignation of its CEO. At the origin of this abrupt departure: the decision of the IT group to split into two separate entities, both listed on the stock exchange, with, on the one hand, the growing activities in the cloud and cybersecurity and, on the other hand, the historic professions in decline in outsourcing.
If he says he doesn’t want to criticize “the sovereign decision of the board of directors” of Atos to which he belonged, Rodolphe Belmer draws, with his resignation, the consequences of this radical choice. Separation from the group makes “my superfluous position as general manager”, he admitted at a press conference. He will remain in office until September 30, the time to hand over to the future general managers of the two future entities: Philippe Oliva for the digital part, called Evidia; Nourdine Bihmane for historical activities called Tech Foundations. This organization should allow “to avoid internal strife”, hopes Mr. Belmer.
This split plan, on which the consulting firm McKinsey worked, must be finalized by the end of 2023 at the latest. 70% of Evidia’s capital will be distributed to current Atos shareholders. They may dispose of the shares as they see fit. Tech Foundations will retain 30% of the capital. The subsequent sale of this residual share will be used to finance the restructuring of this entity, the cost of which is estimated at 1.1 billion euros.
Sovereign and strategic
Once separated, the two entities could more easily interest buyers, especially Evidia. Several groups, such as Thales, Orange or Airbus have already been working for several months around Atos’ cloud and cyber activities. Given the sovereign and strategic nature of these activities, the State will ensure that they remain in the hands of French shareholders. Businesses in decline could be of interest to specialists in the reorganization of this type of activity, in particular investment funds.
Despite a buoyant context, Atos’ turnover has been falling continuously for two years
The split is akin to a dismantling of Atos, in the form constructed by the group’s emblematic former CEO, Thierry Breton, who left in November 2019 for the European Commission. The future Evidia entity brings together a large part of the activities inherited from the takeover of Bull in 2014. The graft with the historical businesses never really took hold. Even if sales of cross-services between the two activities exist, the profits in digital or cyber were mainly used to offset the consumption of cash from other activities. Despite a buoyant context, Atos’ turnover has been falling continuously for two years. In 2021, its fall reached 4.3% and sales further eroded by 2.4% in the first quarter of 2022. In three years, Atos has lost three-quarters of its stock market value and is now worth only 2 .1 billion euros.
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