PARIS (Reuters) – Atos announced on Tuesday that it had entered into advanced exclusive negotiations with the company EP Equity Investment (EPEI) of Czech businessman Daniel Kretinsky with a view to modifying the terms of their sale agreement relating to the Tech division Foundations.
The IT services group, which is experiencing significant financial difficulties, has decided to split its historic IT consulting activities and those in cybersecurity.
The Tech Foundations branch, bringing together IT consulting activities, must be sold to Daniel Kretinsky’s EPEI group but the operation is contested by certain shareholders and political leaders, who fear the loss of assets considered strategic for the benefit of a company foreign.
The initial agreement revealed at the beginning of August between Atos and Daniel Kretinsky provides for the businessman, who has recently increased his investments in France, to take control of Tech Foundations for two billion euros.
The agreement also concerns a 7.5% stake from Daniel Kretinsky in the cybersecurity division that Atos would retain, renamed Eviden.
Among the detractors is the French company Onepoint, which recently took a 10% stake in Atos. Its founder David Layani, who has never hidden his interest in the group’s activities, pleaded at the beginning of the month for a renegotiation of Daniel Kretinsky’s takeover of Tech Foundations.
On Tuesday, Atos said it was negotiating with EPEI to “modify and simplify certain terms of the planned sale”, without giving further details.
“ENDLESS UNCERTAINTY”
On the Paris Stock Exchange, Atos shares fell 6.67% to 5.842 euros at 11:23 a.m. while the SBF 120 gained 0.09% at the same time.
“The decline in the stock is due to the endless uncertainty about the Tech Foundations transaction, financing problems and how changes to the terms of the agreement will be favorable to minority shareholders,” believes Hélène Coumes , analyst at AlphaValue.
In addition to the announcement on Tech Foundations, Atos announced on Tuesday that it was considering the sale of additional assets and recourse to the capital markets to ensure its refinancing by 2025.
The group ensures that it has the necessary liquidity to meet its financial obligations over the next twelve months. But it says it is studying “complementary initiatives” to ensure its longer-term refinancing while it plans a capital increase and must repay a loan of 1.5 billion euros in January 2025 and a bond issue of 750 million in May 2025.
It also estimated the impact of the downgrading of its credit rating by S&P to “BB-” on its interest charges at six million euros per year.
(Report by Gaëlle Sheehan and Blandine Hénault, with the contribution of Diana Mandia, edited by Jean-Stéphane Brosse and Nicolas Delame)
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