(News Bulletin 247) – The alliance between Atos and Airbus in cybersecurity and cloud computing is far from unanimous. The management of the aircraft manufacturer is holding back with four irons, reports BFM Business. At issue: the price paid for Evidian which is deemed “unreasonable”.

Is there water in the gas? The planned alliance between Atos and Airbus in cybersecurity and cloud computing is far from going as planned. According to several sources close to the aircraft manufacturer, management has some reluctance to embark on such a project, reports BFM Business.

Airbus estimates that Evidian is not worth the 4 billion euros demanded by Atos while the group has been posting poor results for three years. In this context, Airbus is reluctant to pay the 1.2 billion euros to buy back the 29.9% stake in Evidian. An expensive price paid while the aircraft manufacturer will not be able to control the future cybersecurity division of Atos.

The latter will bring together Atos’ activities in digital transformation, cybersecurity and supercomputers, with an IPO planned for the second half of 2023, by distributing 70% of the capital to shareholders. Atos will, for its part, be refocused on its historical scope, including in particular outsourcing activities.

The TCI fund on the move

“There is a real interest in cybersecurity, but Atos’ conditions for Evidian are a problem for us”, summarizes one of the sources quoted by BFM Business. The aircraft manufacturer would therefore have worked on a plan B to achieve its ends. “Airbus has even thought about a solution consisting of joining forces with a partner to buy 100% of Evidian and then sell it the digitization and cloud computing activities”, continues BFM Business.

Why such hesitation? It is that TCI (The Children Investment) is at the maneuver of such a slingshot. Shareholder of Airbus, this activist fund which holds just over 3% of the capital of the former EADS has repeatedly expressed its opposition to such an operation.

“Evidian is a low-quality, highly leveraged company with 60,000 employees operating in an extremely competitive market. A 29.9% minority stake in Evidian would be an illiquid and distressed asset,” the fund said in a statement. his vitriolic letter addressed to the management of Airbus.

This is not TCI’s first activist campaign. The fund was very critical of the acquisition by the aeronautical equipment manufacturer Safran of Zodiac in 2017, which had the virtue of helping Safran to lower the price paid for this acquisition, as recognized by the Echoes its president Ross McInnes.

A boon for Thales?

If Airbus throws in the towel, Atos could then find itself in a very uncomfortable position. Lurking in the shadows, Thales could however take advantage of the situation to finally afford the cybersecurity division of Atos, which it has been eyeing for more than two years. The advocacy group began prowling the company in 2019.

“If Airbus abandons negotiations with Atos, it will be necessary to reopen them with other players and perhaps think about another perimeter”, explains Cyril Charlot, founder of the Sycomore fund which is a shareholder of the group, quoted by BFM Business.

On the Paris Stock Exchange, Airbus’ desire to renegotiate the price of Atos’ cybersecurity activity weighs on the title of the digital services company. This new uncertainty on this operation makes the Atos share fall by 6.5% after having fallen by more than 9% from the first exchanges.