(BFM Bourse) – The company said in a press release on Monday that its Tech Foundations division, which includes its historic outsourcing business, had been approached by potential candidates for a takeover.
With a stock market fall of more than 70% since the beginning of the year, and more than 90% over five years, Atos obviously attracts the attention of potential predators.
This Monday morning, the digital services company thus confirmed in a press release that its historical assets were in the crosshairs of several candidates.
“Following rumors in the press, Atos specifies that, since the presentation of its separation project during the CMD [Capital Market Day, une journée dédiée aux investisseurs, NDLR] on June 14, the company was approached by several players interested in a potential acquisition of its Tech Foundations business,” the company said in a short statement.
“The assumption that such an expression of interest would result in a transaction is highly uncertain,” the company added.
The expansion letter reported that same Monday that the American funds Apollo and Cerberus Capital would eye these activities of “Tech Foundations”. Contacted by BFM Bourse, Atos did not wish to comment on this press information beyond its press release.
A split planned for next year
In mid-June, Atos had presented a strategic plan providing for a split of the company into two separate companies next year. The first company would keep the name of Atos and would bring together the historical activities of data center infrastructure management (“Tech Foundations”), in significant structural decline. The second would take the name of Evidian and bring together activities related to digital transformation as well as those of Big Data and Security (BDS). It would be listed separately on the stock exchange via a distribution of shares to Atos holders.
On the stock market, the Atos share took up 4.5% at the start of the session on Monday but only gained 0.5% around 4:40 p.m. This moderate reaction must however be qualified, the title having taken nearly 12% on Friday without any announcement justifying this variation. An analyst had put forward unwinding of short positions on the title – which result in purchases of shares by investors betting on the decline – to explain this movement.
Atos will publish its orders and sales for the third quarter of 2022 on Wednesday before the market opens. The group’s management may be required to comment in more detail on the recurring rumors targeting one or other of its activities.
At the end of September, the group had received a letter of intent from the digital services company Onepoint, associated with the investment fund ICG. This declaration of intent targeted the scope of the future Evidian with a proposal conferring an enterprise value of 4.2 billion euros on this activity. Judging that this offer was not in the interest of the company, the board of directors did not follow up on this first approach.
Julien Marion – ©2022 BFM Bourse
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