PARIS (Reuters) – Atos announced on Thursday that it had entered a new phase of non-exclusive discussions with Airbus with a view to concluding a long-term technology agreement and selling the European aircraft manufacturer a 29.9% minority stake in its future digital and cybersecurity business line Evidian.

If successful, the transaction would make Airbus Evidian’s main industrial partner and give it control over the new entity, which brings together Atos’ most coveted assets such as the BDS cybersecurity division and supercomputers. .

Atos, which counts the French administration and army among its clients, would in return obtain a much-needed investment from a European industrial group, as it strives to carry out its plan for a split after a period trouble marked by a crisis of governance, heavy losses and strong fluctuations in the share price.

The Atos share climbed on the Paris Stock Exchange by 8.08% to 12.76 euros at 12:55 GMT.

The “indicative bid” for Airbus’ intended stake – which falls short of the 30% threshold that would automatically trigger a full bid on the entity – was not disclosed. The discussions are not exclusive, Atos said.

Atos values ​​Evidian at around 7 billion euros, including debt of 3 billion euros, according to a source familiar with the matter. At this valuation level, a 29.9% stake in Evidian would cost 1.2 billion euros.

Atos declined to comment.

“INDUSTRIAL AMBITION”

The group, whose market capitalization has fallen to 1.3 billion euros, rejected in September an offer to buy Evidian for an enterprise value of 4.2 billion euros from the Onepoint group.

A time tipped as a possible buyer, Thales denied in January being interested in taking a stake in Evidian.

With a partnership with Airbus, Atos hopes to “accelerate Evidian’s industrial ambition and future growth while ensuring technological sovereignty in France and Europe, in the critical areas of cloud, advanced computing, cybersecurity and of digitalization”, said its chairman of the board of directors, Bertrand Meunier, quoted in a press release.

Atos, formed in part by a series of acquisitions made under the leadership of its former CEO, Thierry Breton, a former French finance minister and now European Commissioner for the Internal Market, has close ties to the security world in France. The state has the final say on partnerships.

The group secures communications for the French army and secret services and manufactures servers for supercomputers capable of processing masses of data for research or to develop the nascent sector of artificial intelligence.

Former French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe sits on the board of Atos.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Finance declined to comment on the news.

(With the contribution of Mathieu Rosemain, Written by Tangi Salaün and Kate Entringer, edited by Blandine Hénault)

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