Former flagship of the IT sector, the French group Atos has been in great difficulty for several months and is looking for a buyer to escape bankruptcy. The government applied this weekend to buy its strategic and defense activities.
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Over the past year, the Atos group has lost nearly 80% of its stock market value. Debted to the tune of 5 billion euros, the company with more than 100,000 employees around the world is looking for a buyer. A time, Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky has expressed interestbut the negotiations were unsuccessful.
A potential foreign buyer rather frowned upon by the French government, because Atos has supercomputers (computers with very significant computing capacities) used for nuclear deterrence, or even for artificial intelligence. The group thus has contracts with the French army. It is also he who is responsible for cybersecurity for the Paris Olympic Games this year and part of the cybersecurity for French civil nuclear power plants and certain public services such as Social Security. The government does not want these activities to be bought by a foreign group and is proposing that the State become a shareholder in the company.
“ This weekend I submitted a letter of intent to acquire all the sovereignty activities of Atos », announced, Sunday April 28, on the LCI channel, the French Minister of Economy and Finance Bruno Le Maire. “ We will see tomorrow who the other shareholders will be who could participate, only French shareholders. The objective is for Atos’ strategic activities to remain under the exclusive control of France and to prevent sensitive, decisive activities in terms of supercomputers and defense from depending on foreign interests. “, he clarified. An announcement welcomed by Atos this Monday.
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A group in great difficulty
It must be said that the French group has revised its financial needs upwards for the coming months. Atos assured this Monday that it needs more than 1.1 billion euros to finance its activities until the end of next year. This is almost double the estimate he had previously given.
Its turnover fell by 11% in the first quarter. The company has lost nearly 80% of its value on the stock market over the past year, even though its stock rose this Monday, April 29 in Paris in reaction to Bruno Le Maire’s announcement. The fact that the French State can acquire part of its activities is a breath of fresh air for the company.
The government’s announcement aims to try to convince buyers, believes Jean-Pierre Maulny, deputy director of the Institute of International and Strategic Relations (Iris). “ In this scenario, in general, we are looking for a French buyer. Obviously, no one wants to take over all this activity, so the French State has decided to put its hand in its pocket – but not completely – to encourage French companies to buy Atoshe explains. The company would thus become a private company with public shareholders, like Thales, Safran or Airbus. », defense and aeronautics companies, he emphasizes.
This type of initiative is, however, rare. “ Generally, foreign investment control legislation is applied. The State does not want a foreign company to buy a French company and is looking for French shareholders “, specifies Jean-Pierre Maulny. For example, in 2020, Photonis, a company in the defense electronics sector, was at risk of being bought by an American company : “ The French State did not directly acquire, did not buy back shares “, but was opposed to the takeover by the American company, he recalls.
In the case of Atos, it remains to be seen whether the government’s announcement will be enough to convince French private buyers. Another outstanding question: how much would this partial buyout cost the State? Today, the group is worth around 250 million euros on the stock market, but the overall value of the company, all activities combined, is estimated between 700 million and 1 billion euros.
Read alsoThe French state wants to acquire the sensitive activities of the former IT flagship Atos