(BFM Bourse) – The board of directors of Atos has decided not to follow up on a takeover proposal relating to its “Evidian” cybersecurity division. The offer formulated by OnePoint and ICG, values 4.2 billion euros the most dynamic branch of the French digital services company.
The board of directors of the French computer giant Atos rejected Thursday evening “unanimously” an offer to buy back its Evidian branch, bringing together its strategic activities including cybersecurity, valuing it at 4.2 billion euros.
This “unsolicited” offer, which comes from the French IT consulting group OnePoint associated with the ICG investment fund, “is not in the interest of the company and its stakeholders”, Atos said in a press release.
The Atos share yielded 0.9% to 8.578 euros around 09:30. Thursday, the title had risen sharply at the end of the session amid rumors about this operation, closing at 8.65 euros, a jump of 10.64%.
The French group has continued to tumble on the stock market for months, victim of mediocre economic results, against the trend of the digital markets, and a lack of investor confidence in the group’s management’s ability to recover. bar.
A “perfectly friendly” offer
“I ask the board of directors of Atos to reconsider its position”, declared in a video conference hastily organized Thursday evening David Layani, the boss of Onepoint (3,000 employees).
This is a “perfectly friendly offer”, which should make it possible to constitute “a new French champion of strategy, consulting, tech and + data + (data)”, he declared. According to him, his offer should allow Atos to create “20,000 jobs in Europe” and “10,000 jobs in France within three to five years”.
Onepoint and ICG’s offer provides for the two partners to jointly take over Evidian, the part of Atos which is to bring together all of the group’s fast-growing activities (digitalization consulting, cybersecurity, high-performance servers and supercomputers), according to a restructuring presented mid-June.
Atos could retain in the operation up to 30% of Evidian, assured Mr. Layani. The other part of Atos will bring together the group’s historical activities, and in particular outsourcing (management of computer equipment on behalf of third parties).
The plan to separate Atos into two entities was presented in mid-June by Rodolphe Belmer, the managing director who took over the group six months earlier. But Mr. Belmer had announced at the same time his departure from the group, to everyone’s surprise, and to the great displeasure of the Stock Exchange.
A situation closely monitored by the State
The division of the group is in progress, under the leadership of the chairman of the board of directors, Bertrand Meunier. This is targeted by a sling of small shareholders who demand his departure, believing that he is not up to carrying out this major restructuring. They are trying to federate at least 5% of the voting rights to obtain an extraordinary general meeting, with difficulty because the capital of Atos is very dispersed.
ICG is an investment company listed on the London Stock Exchange, which claims $68 billion in assets under management, and which is headed by Frenchman Benoit Durteste. Onepoint claims 400 million euros in turnover and 3,000 employees.
Atos’ situation is being closely monitored by the state and the government. The group, long chaired by the current European Commissioner Thierry Breton, has major contracts in progress with the State, including military contracts, since it provides secure communications systems for the armies, in competition with Thales.
Atos also owns the last manufacturing activities for high-performance servers and supercomputers still in Europe, inherited from the former Bull.
(With AFP)
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