Here’s how Airbus crashes the French Atos
Yet another blow for the French IT consultancy company: the aerospace giant has withdrawn from negotiations for the acquisition of Atos' BDS cybersecurity division. What happened on the stock market
There is no peace for Atos.
The French software company, already struggling with a difficult financial situation, has announced that the sale of Bds, one of its strategic business units, to Airbus has failed. The news comes less than a month after the conclusion of the exclusive negotiations started with EP Equity Investment (Epei), owned by the Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky, for the sale of the Tech Foundations branch, notes La Tribune .
Therefore, Atos is now rescheduling the publication of its 2023 earnings results in the near future to evaluate strategic options. Scheduled for March 20, it had already been postponed to the end of February, after the announcement of the failure of negotiations between Atos and Kretinsky.
In the meantime, the stock market collapsed, with the stock losing 20% to 1.71 euros in Paris. For its part, Airbus gained 1.81% to 166.18 euros, the best progression of the CAC 40.
All the details.
THE NEGOTIATION FOR THE BDS TRANSFER FALLS OFF
Negotiations for the sale of Atos's BDS (Big Data & Security) division to Airbus fail. The French IT consultancy group announced that it had been informed by Airbus that discussions on the sale would not continue.
THE POSITION OF THE AEROSPACE GIANT
Airbus has decided "not to continue discussions with Atos" for the acquisition of the Big Data & Security business line of the information technology group. This is what we read in a note from Airbus which made the decision "after a careful evaluation of all aspects of the potential acquisition".
SKIP THE 2023 BUDGET COMMUNICATION
For its part, Atos, confirming the interruption of negotiations, underlined its desire to evaluate strategic alternatives that take into account "the sovereign imperatives of the French State".
The French IT services provider, whose restructuring was entrusted to the former CEO of Unicredit, Jean Pierre Mustier, "is analyzing the resulting situation and actively evaluating strategic alternatives that will take into account the sovereign needs of the French state", we read in a note. Atos has therefore decided to "reschedule the communication of its 2023 results in the near future in order to evaluate strategic options".
ANALYSTS COMMENT
Commenting on the development, analysts at Oddo BHF said that the breakdown of negotiations for the sale of the BDS division “poses both a liquidity problem” and an issue “concerning debt restructuring”. They believe the former “could speed up the safeguard procedure and increase potential dilution for existing shareholders,” Reuters reports.
DIFFICULT PERIOD FOR FRENCH SOCIETY
Under the leadership of new president Jean Pierre Mustier (formerly Unicredit) , Atos is trying to refinance itself and avoid a broader debt restructuring. At the beginning of February the company announced the appointment of an ad hoc "authority" for negotiations with banks on the refinancing of its debt. At the same time, the company abandoned a capital increase plan of 720 million euros, which was supposed to strengthen the balance sheet, explaining that there were no longer conditions to carry it out.
Once a French corporate champion with prized assets such as supercomputers and sensitive contracts with the French military, attempts to split the group and sell assets to repay debts have faltered after a series of strategic missteps and management changes, summed up the recently Financial Times . Over the past three years, the company has had five CEOs, issued a series of profit warnings and lost 90% of its market capitalization.
This new episode makes the group's future even more uncertain.
However, some press reports suggest that Kretinsky may consider making a new bid for Atos' Tech Foundations.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/ecco-come-airbus-manda-in-tilt-la-francese-atos/ on Tue, 19 Mar 2024 15:21:48 +0000.