(News Bulletin 247) – The digital services company announced that the conditions were no longer met, due to the current context, to proceed with this call to the market. The group also announced the appointment of an ad hoc agent to renegotiate its debt with its creditors. The stock is dropping again this Monday.

In just one month, Atos has already seen its stock more than halved. Since January 1, Atos shares have lost more than 50% (and more than 95% over three years). Its shares are now trading at less than 4 euros (3.29 euros).

However, since last summer, the group had planned to carry out a capital increase to strengthen its finances, to the tune of 720 million euros. When this announcement was made, the stock was still worth more than 9 euros and has since fallen. However, the more its share price falls, the more complicated and painful it is for a company to carry out a capital increase (logic: the lower a share is, the more the group concerned must issue shares to raise the targeted money, which dilutes increasingly its shareholders).

While its financial situation is greatly weakened, it is therefore not completely surprising to see the group abandon its appeal to the market.

This Monday Atos announced that “given the evolution of the market context, the conditions for carrying out the capital increase project with preferential subscription rights of 720 million euros are no longer met and the commitment of guarantee granted by BNP Paribas and JP Morgan is no longer in force”.

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“Low visibility”

Atos has also decided to request an ad hoc agent to supervise discussions on the refinancing of its debt with its creditors.

“The ad hoc agent is an independent third party whose mission would be to assist the company in its discussions, with a view to converging towards an adequate financial solution as quickly as possible, in the interest of the company,” explains the company. . “The ad hoc mandate is an amicable procedure allowing negotiations to be conducted in a confidential framework. The ad hoc mandate would only concern the financial debt of the company and would have no impact on the group’s employees, customers and suppliers,” continues the business.

Over the years 2024 and 2025, Atos faces a wall of 3.65 billion euros of debt falling due and therefore having to be refinanced, a figure which increases to 4.8 billion euros by adding two maturities of 2028 and 2029.

“This designation underlines that discussions with banking partners have become tense, which is quite logical given the low visibility over the group’s scope. This announcement should continue to fuel the downward spiral on the stock,” judges Invest Securities. in a note published before the market opened.

Indeed: Atos plunges again this Monday, and collapses by 16.4% to 3.29 euros around 9:11 a.m.

Two transfer transactions

Atos also indicated that the two major disposal operations in which it is involved were continuing.

The group continues to discuss with Daniel Kretinsky the sale of “Tech Foundations”, which brings together its historical businesses such as outsourcing, that is to say the orchestration of client servers. The group emphasizes, once again, that it is not certain that these discussions will lead to an agreement.

Several media, including BFM Busines, reported that these discussions were on the wrong track, because Atos would like to revise the sale price of these activities to 500 million euros when Daniel Kretinsky would agree to a maximum of 170 million euros, according to BFM Business .

At the same time, Atos is discussing with Airbus the sale of its Big Data & Security (BDS) division, which notably includes big data, cybersecurity and supercomputers. The company indicates that it has reached the “due diligence” phase, that is to say the phase of verifications prior to any transfer.

Airbus may possibly say more on this point when it publishes its annual results on February 15, while those of Atos will be published on February 29.