FILE PHOTO: A view of the logo of French IT consulting firm Atos on a company's building in Nantes, France, April 22, 2024. REUTERS/Stephane Mahe/File Photo
PARIS: Atos SE’s creditors reached an agreement with the company that will see them take control of the embattled French information technology (IT) services company instead of an outside investor.
Bondholders and lenders have agreed to convert €2.9bil (US$3.1bil) of loans and bonds into equity, provide as much as €1.68bil of new debt and to inject €233mil in new equity, either themselves or alongside a private industrial investor, according to the statement.
By doing the deal on their own, the debt holders participating in the new debt stand to benefit more.
Existing shareholders’ equity will be worth close to zero as a result of the restructuring. Creditors signing the lock-up agreement by July 12 will receive a 50 basis-point fee.
Atos asked creditors to leave the door open to an anchor investor for the equity injection, according to people with knowledge of the matter, who asked not to be identified because the talks are private.
Representatives for Atos didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment outside of regular business hours.
Once one of France’s premier tech companies, Atos had set its sights on taking market share from Accenture Plc and Capgemini SE, before accounting scandals and huge debts left it on the verge of insolvency.
Even though the firm has lost about 90% of its value in the last year, it remains a key IT services provider in its home country, with strategic contracts linking it to the defense and nuclear industry, as well as the Uefa Euros and the Olympic Games.
When it has enough support from creditors, Atos will ask a commercial court to open an accelerated safeguard to approve the restructuring.
This court process allows the company to overrule dissenting stakeholders as long as it meets certain conditions.
The creditor group also said they would re-examine a deal to sell part of the company’s big data and security unit to the French state.
The process will determine whether “the purchase price is reflecting a fair market value and is consistent with the corporate interest of the company”. If not, the company will terminate the sale, it said.
The French government offered €700mil, including debt, for the strategic parts of the unit, earlier in June in a non-binding bid.
Those include Atos’s supercomputers, “mission-critical” systems and cybersecurity activities.
In April, the government said the assets could be worth as much as €1bil.
Atos started negotiations with its creditors under the supervision of a court-appointed mediator in early February to restructure its €4.85bil debt pile.
The company needed not only to reduce its debt burden but also an equity injection, and two bidders with different views on how to rescue Atos emerged early on: David Layani’s Onepoint – a smaller French IT firm that is the largest shareholder of Atos – and Daniel Kretinsky’s EPEI.
Layani’s “One Atos” proposal was pitched as a way to help the company avoid a breakup and remain under French ownership, and it also promised a smaller haircut for debtholders. — Bloomberg
