Atos: exclusive negotiations with the French State with a view to transferring strategic activities to it

The IT group Atos, in the midst of financial restructuring, has entered into exclusive negotiations with the French State with a view to transferring the strategic activities of its branch to it. « Advanced Computing »which notably include supercomputers used for nuclear deterrence, he announced on Monday.

The planned operation, which also concerns servers participating in artificial intelligence activities, covers the entirety of this branch, for a company value of between 500 and 625 million euros, specifies a press release.

The French State’s offer provides that discussions will take place until May 31, 2025 at the latest to « Advanced Computing »which brings together some 2,500 employees and generated a turnover of 570 million euros in 2023.

“The opening of exclusive discussions between the State and Atos constitutes a crucial first step, not only for the recovery and restructuring of the group but also for securing the strategic activity of supercomputers”reacted the Minister of the Economy, Antoine Armand, in a separate press release.

At the beginning of November, Atos had already announced the issue of a preferred share for the benefit of France, granting it special rights at the level of Bull SA, the subsidiary which builds the supercomputers used in particular to simulate nuclear deterrence tests.

In the event of a positive conclusion to the exclusive negotiations announced on Monday, it is expected that the IT group will receive a first payment of 150 million euros upon signature of the agreement and that a process of “organized transfer” takes place for activities « Cybersecurity Products et Mission Critical Systems ».

The latter, which achieved a turnover of some 340 million euros in 2023, include the Scorpion command system (Army modernization program), navigation tools for naval forces and the merchant marine, or real-time mapping for the military.

Atos, in complete disarray for several years, received a breath of fresh air at the end of October, with the validation by the commercial court of its accelerated safeguard plan.

This plan, voted on at the beginning of September by creditors and shareholders, provides for debt relief of 3 billion euros, out of a total of nearly 5 billion, a capital increase and dilution. « massive » of shareholders.

It is supposed to be implemented by January 2025 at the latest.