The rescue lasted less than three weeks. Atos announced on Wednesday, June 26, 2024, that the consortium led by Onepoint had walked away from its plan to save the French IT group, leaving the company in the same financial and executive mess it had been in before.
In a statement, Onepoint said the group, which also included Butler Industries and Econocom, “found that the conditions were not ripe to reach an agreement paving the way for a lasting solution to the financial restructuring.” Atos did not elaborate on why the partners had ended the talks, Bloomberg reported. Onepoint was founded by David Layani, Atos’s largest shareholder. He and fellow board member Helen Lee-Bouygues resigned from the board immediately.
What the deal would have done
The “One Atos” plan proposed converting €2.9 billion of debt into equity and putting in €250 million of new money. It would have diluted existing shareholders heavily, but kept the company in one piece and under French ownership. Atos had been due to reach a “definite” restructuring commitment by July.
The Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky, who runs EPH, the biggest energy group in Central Europe, had been the rival bidder. Atos said he was willing to reopen talks. His latest offer, as Tech Monitor had earlier reported, combined a short-term cash injection of €600m with a €4bn reduction in group debt and €1.3bn in long-term financing, in exchange for “almost total control of Atos.” Bondholders also tabled a revised proposal, and the company said it still expected to agree terms with most creditors the following month. It added that it had reached an agreement with the French government to protect “sovereign interests.”
A British problem too
For Britain, the awkward part is the client list. Tech Monitor reported that Atos provides services to the Home Office, the Ministry of Defence and the Ministry of Justice, and helps run IT systems behind NHS health records, PIP assessments, HMRC tax refunds and student loan records. Its UK government contracts are worth almost a billion pounds.
Whitehall had already noticed. The i newspaper reported earlier in June that the government was reviewing alternative IT providers to limit “severe implications” for essential services, and that officials feared knock-on effects for NHS appointments and benefit payments.
The company’s troubles were not new. Atos had been fighting debts for years and had gone through four chief executives in two years. Fortune, carrying Bloomberg’s report, said Atos had lost 90% of its value over the previous year, after accounting scandals and heavy borrowing brought it to the edge of insolvency. It had once set out to take market share from Accenture and Capgemini.
It still held strategic contracts in France tied to defence, the nuclear industry and the Olympic Games.
Sources
- Atos crisis escalates, raising concerns for UK public services’ IT systems – Tech Monitor
- France’s former IT giant Atos chose Onepoint’s restructuring plan, but Onepoint withdrew giving billionaire Daniel Kretinsky the power to step in | Fortune (Bloomberg)
