The Atos logo during a press conference in Paris
Atos announced on Monday that it was reshuffling its management team and appointing Paul Saleh as general manager, with immediate effect, the fourth in less than two years.
He replaces Yves Bernaert, in place until then since October 2023, who “leaves the group after an intense period of transformation”.
Until then financial director, Paul Saleh is replaced by Jacques-François de Perst in this position.
The new general director will have the mission of ensuring the repayment and refinancing of the group’s financial debts, including the planned takeover of its BDS (Big data & security) activity by Airbus and the sale of its loss-making branch Tech Foundations.
Atos, which said earlier this month that negotiations for the sale of Tech Foundations were taking longer than expected, said on Monday that it had not filed a “request for the appointment of an ad hoc agent or opening of ‘a conciliation procedure’.
Tech Foundations is to be sold to the EPEI group of Czech businessman Daniel Kretinsky.
The newspaper Les Echos reported in its Monday edition that Atos’ restructuring plan was encountering difficulties.
Furthermore, the group confirmed that its annual turnover and operating margin will achieve the objectives set for 2023. Its free cash flow should however be “slightly lower than its objective of around -100 million euros for the second half of 2023”.
(Report Sudip Kar-Gupta, written by Gaëlle Sheehan)