(News Bulletin 247) – The digital services company announced Wednesday evening that it held 9.9% of the capital of Atos. A stake which arouses speculation on the part of the market and will in any case allow Onepoint to influence the strategic orientations of the company.

The Atos file is definitely full of twists and turns. Latest episode to date: the French digital services company Onepoint announced Wednesday evening that it had taken 9.9% of the capital of the former CAC 40 resident.

“This equity investment comes as part of the company’s ongoing reorganization project, and its new governance, and reinforces the strategic dimension of Atos’ activities,” Onepoint said in a press release without further specifying its intentions.

According to a notice published by the Financial Markets Authority, Onepoint’s exact stake is 9.98% of the capital and voting rights.

“We welcome the arrival of Onepoint and plan to enter into a constructive dialogue with it, as with all the other shareholders of the group, in the best interest of all our stakeholders.”, reacted Atos in a press release.

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A disrupted context

Onepoint is thus returning to the charge after being rejected about a year ago by Atos. In September 2022, the French group wanted to acquire Eviden (then called Evidian), a division which brings together Atos’ growing activities, such as digital transformation, supercomputers and cybersecurity.

Joining forces with the British investment fund ICG, Onepoint then made an offer granting an enterprise value of 4.2 billion euros to Eviden. The Atos board of directors rejected this proposal, judging that it was not “in the interest of the company and its stakeholders”.

A year later, Onepoint is going out the window rather than the door, in a disrupted context. Atos has accentuated its fall on the stock market and its shares are worth, in total, no more than 800 million euros at the market price (the market capitalization had even fallen to around 500 million a few weeks ago). In fact, Onepoint probably only had to pay 40 to 60 million euros to build up its stake.

Above all, the Atos split plan has been profoundly modified. While the group was still planning to split in two before the summer by listing Eviden on the stock market, the operation is now planned in another way, via the sale of historical activities (such as outsourcing), called “Tech Foundations” , to Daniel Kretinsky. Atos will therefore refocus on its other businesses and rename itself Eviden.

In parallel with the sale of Tech Foundations, Atos plans to carry out capital increases totaling 900 million euros to strengthen Eviden’s balance sheet, of which 180 million would be injected by Daniel Kretinsky. In addition to buying “Tech Foundations”, the Czech businessman would therefore become a major shareholder of the new Atos.

This project has aroused political emotion – two separate amendments to the draft Budget for 2024 propose to nationalize Atos or part of Atos – as well as opposition from several shareholders. Among them, the activist fund Ciam and another fund, Alix AM, both of which filed complaints with the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) linked to the sale of Tech Foundations.

A significant power to “annoy”

The governance of Atos has also been profoundly modified with the arrival of a new general director, Yves Bernaert, appointed on October 4, and especially the departure of Bertrand Meunier, the now ex-president of the board of directors of the Company. In office from 2019 until mid-October, Bertrand Meunier embodied the only island of stability in the governance of the company. But under his presidency, no less than four general directors succeeded one another in four years, and the manager had been challenged on multiple occasions by shareholders.

Onepoint therefore comes to invite itself into this saga of drawers by taking almost 10% of the capital. Which sparks market speculation as to the future intentions of the French company.

On the Paris Stock Exchange, Atos jumped 14.6% around 10:30 a.m. to 7.19 euros. “Obviously there is speculation because Onepoint is coming back intelligently and seems to be positioning itself to potentially force Atos to discuss selling it certain assets that would interest it on the Eviden scope or even Eviden as a whole,” deciphers an analyst.

In any case, with 9.9% of the capital, Onepoint becomes an important voice. Atos must, in fact, seek approval from its shareholders for the sale of Tech Foundations and the planned capital increases, during a general meeting scheduled for the second quarter of 2024.

“To the extent that Atos’ capital is very fragmented, Onepoint finds itself in a position where they can clearly tip the balance and have significant power to annoy, even if it seems that the split is in their interest since “a priori only the Eviden part of Atos interests them”, adds the analyst. “In any case, Onepoint’s operation seems very clever,” he concludes.