PARIS (Reuters) – Atos announced on Wednesday that it had launched a due diligence phase with Airbus for the purchase of its BDS (Big data & security) business for which the European aircraft manufacturer is proposing an enterprise value of between 1.5 billion and 1 .8 billion euros.

“Currently at a preliminary stage”, discussions concern “the entire BDS scope”, indicates the company in a press release.

Airbus had already shown interest in acquiring a 29.9% stake in Atos’ digital and cybersecurity business before abandoning the project last March.

The aeronautics group said then that it remained open to a strategic partnership with Atos.

In an email to Reuters, an Airbus spokesperson confirmed a non-binding offer to take over Atos’ BDS division.

“The acquisition of BDS could significantly accelerate Airbus’ digital transformation, enhance the company’s defense and security portfolio with strong capabilities in cyber, advanced computing and artificial intelligence, and support the leaf Airbus’ roadmap for decarbonization,” Airbus said.

In its press release, Atos specifies that it has received two letters indicating non-binding expressions of interest in its BDS activity, one of which concerns part of the scope of the division.

UNCERTAINTIES ABOUT TECH FOUNDATIONS

Faced with significant financial difficulties, Atos has decided to split its historical IT consulting activities and those in cybersecurity.

The Tech Foundations branch, bringing together IT consulting activities, is to be sold to the EPEI group of Czech businessman Daniel Kretinsky while Atos plans to keep the cybersecurity activities, which bring together the BDS branch, in a new entity called Eviden.

At the end of November, Atos said it was renegotiating its agreement with Daniel Kretinsky on Tech Foundations while the operation is contested by certain shareholders and political leaders, who fear the loss of assets deemed strategic to the benefit of a foreign company.

The operation provided for Tech Foundations to be sold to EPEI for two billion euros, in exchange for a 7.5% stake from Daniel Kretinsky in Eviden via a capital increase of 900 million euros.

But on Wednesday, Atos indicated that the initially planned size of Eviden’s capital increase would be reduced, paving the way for Daniel Kretinsky not to ultimately enter the capital.

“The company is examining with EPEI the legal and financial conditions under which EPEI could be released, in whole or in part, from its commitment” to participate in the capital increase, specifies Atos.

“MORE TIME THAN EXPECTED”

Atos Chief Financial Officer Paul Saleh acknowledged Wednesday in a conference call with reporters that exclusive negotiations with EPEI were “taking a little longer than expected.”

Discussions are continuing on the price to pay, the structure of the operation and the transfer of a very large part of the liabilities attached to Tech Foundations, he said.

“Like any negotiation, there is no certainty that it will lead to an agreement,” added the financial director.

Atos also confirmed that it is in discussions with its banks in order to plan the repayment and financing of its debts, in particular through the sale of assets, including its BDS activity.

The company is considering the sale of assets “well beyond the 400 million euros mentioned in the press release of July 28, 2023, in order to honor its financing deadlines”.

If the transaction with EPEI does not go through, the company is considering additional asset sales.

(Report by Gaëlle Sheehan and Blandine Hénault, with Dagmarah Mackos, edited by Jean-Stéphane Brosse)

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