The French state wants to acquire the strategic activities of Atos

The French state aims to bid by June – OfficialTargeted activities generate sales of 900 million euros – OfficialThe French government seeks support from other industrial groups – Le Maire (adds details from the source in paragraphs 2,4; in paragraphs 9,10 Details on the indicative proposal in paragraphs 11,12) by Matthew Roseman;

PARIS, April 28 (Reuters) – The French government sent a letter of intent to Atos over the weekend, aiming to acquire all of its activities that the state considers strategic, as the IT consulting firm attempts to restructure its debt. .

The French state is targeting three activities of Atos deemed of strategic importance – advanced computing, critical systems and cyber products, a finance ministry official said on Sunday.

Atos secures communications for the French military and secret services and builds servers to create supercomputers capable of processing large amounts of data for research or to develop the emerging artificial intelligence industry.

Speaking ahead of Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire’s comments in an interview with a French news channel, the official said the entities, part of Atos’ prized cybersecurity unit BDS, employ about 4,000 people and have revenues of about 900 million euros ($962 million). million) with annual sales. LCI.

“This weekend I filed a letter of intent to acquire all of the sovereign activities of Atos,” Le Maire said. He said he would like to see other industrial groups join a potential bid by the French state for the activities. The consortium led by France’s state shareholding agency APE would include other “French sovereign players”, Le Maire said, declining to name them. Said in denial.

There has been speculation in the French press that defense groups such as Thales and Dassault Aviation could participate in plans to protect the assets. Thales and Atos declined to comment, while Dassault Aviation was not immediately available for comment.

The goal is to have a proposal ready by June, the official said, declining to elaborate on what the Finance Ministry had estimated in its indicative proposal for Atos’ entities.

The official said the expected proposal is not based on the formation of a consortium but is aimed at forming a consortium. It was unclear how much of a stake the French state would get in Atos’s activities.

Atos, which manages data and cybersecurity for the upcoming Olympic Games, is in the midst of a refinancing, which will involve raising 1.2 billion euros ($1.3 billion) through equity and new debt and could result in significant dilution to existing shareholders. Will come.

Shares of Atos, whose net debt stood at 3.9 billion euros at the end of March, have declined over the past two years following a series of profit warnings, CEO shake-ups and a potential asset sale, particularly due to the fallout from BDS and its financial crisis. Legacy Operations Tech Foundation.