Is Atos finally getting its head above water? On Wednesday, July 24, the Nanterre Commercial Court opened an accelerated safeguard procedure for the struggling French IT group, a technological pillar of the Paris Games, in order to implement the restructuring plan negotiated with its creditors. At the same time, Jean-Pierre Mustier, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Atos since October 2023, was appointed Chairman and CEO of the group on the same day with immediate effect.
“The court considered that, given the sufficiently broad support of the financial creditors and the information provided by the conciliator during the hearing, the adoption of the draft financial restructuring plan during the accelerated safeguard procedure was likely,” Atos said in a statement. The court hearing for the approval of the accelerated safeguard plan is “planned” for October 15.
In mid-July, Atos, which has more than 90,000 employees in 69 countries, reached an agreement with a group of banks and bondholders to secure financing for its restructuring plan, which totals €1.75 billion. Weighed down by a colossal gross debt of nearly €5 billion, Atos initiated a restructuring procedure in February and has since found itself plunged into a financial saga with multiple twists and turns… With its share of failures. Over the months, the former French flagship of IT services has seen many options for replenishing its coffers fall through.
Kretinksy, Airbus… A succession of failures
In April 2024, Airbus announced that it would not buy Atos’ Big Data & Security (BDS) activities. “The Germans at Airbus were rather unfavorable to this operation and the pre-European election context surely played a role as well,” Catherine Berjal, co-founder of an activist investment fund involved in the Atos case, declared at the time in L’Express. A few weeks earlier, the sale of its Tech Foundations consulting branch to Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky had also been canceled.
The future of the group has a strong political dimension linked to its strategic activities in the field of defense. As recalled by the New York Times “Atos owns, among other things, the supercomputer that allows the French army to simulate nuclear bomb tests, after the government banned physical tests in 1996. Atos software is used on French Rafale fighter jets and even on the secure telephone lines of the French armed forces.” This explains why last April, Bercy granted Atos a loan of 50 million euros, in addition to the 400 million euros private, to “stabilize its financial situation” and “guarantee the protection of strategic activities.”
And now? After the withdrawal at the end of June of the consortium led by Onepoint, the largest shareholder of Atos initially chosen to carry out this rescue, the creditors and the banks have agreed to take over and save the company themselves. The agreement includes in particular a capital increase of 233 million euros, and a reduction of the debt of approximately 3 billion euros.
Jean-Pierre Bustier becomes CEO of Atos
Banks and bondholders will then become the majority shareholders of Atos: they will hold up to 99.9% of the capital. The capital increase is however open to current shareholders who would not like to see their stake diluted and could, if they contribute, secure a maximum of 25.9% of the capital. The agreement reached should enable the group to emerge from the financial crisis, obtain a “BB” credit rating “by 2026” and guarantee it “a minimum amount of liquidity of 1.1 billion euros” until December 31, 2026.
Chairman of the Board of Directors since October 2023, Jean-Pierre Mustier was appointed CEO of Atos on Wednesday, July 24. He replaces American Paul Saleh, who presented his resignation to the Board of Directors, and had been appointed CEO of Atos in January, replacing Yves Bernaert who had only been in office for three months. This resignation is part of the waltz of management since the departure in October 2021 of CEO Elie Girard, successor in 2019 to Thierry Breton, then called to the European Commission and who had been at the head of the company for more than ten years.
Regarding the future governance of the group, Atos had indicated in mid-July that the company would remain “uncontrolled” during a “transition period” until the completion of the financial restructuring because the banks and bondholders “do not intend to act in concert”. The board of directors will remain composed of a majority of independent directors and “certain creditors will have the right to propose the appointment of members and/or censors” after the restructuring, the French group added.
One of the pillars of the Olympic Games
As the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) global IT partner since 2002, Atos is one of the technological pillars of the Paris Olympics, responsible in particular for accreditation management, instant results dissemination and cybersecurity. For example, the company takes care of the competition calendar, the voting applications for athletes who participate in the IOC’s decision-making processes within the Athletes’ Commission, the volunteer portal and the management of operational teams,” the firm informs on its website. And who lists the athletes’ personal data? It’s Atos again. When the group was financially strangled, Jean-Pierre Bustier was already trying to reassure in April 2024: “Atos will do its job in a completely normal manner” during the event.
While this is an important step for Atos, some clouds remain in its financial sky. “The financing provided by bank and bond creditors will be at very high interest rates, reaching 13% for certain types of credit. As a result, a large part of the group’s future profits will go towards repaying the debt,” warn our colleagues at World. Enough to risk putting a damper on it in the long term.