Atos pushes back deadline to choose financial restructuring route
The reseller said it is working with two parties on revising “certain terms” of their proposals
French reselling giant Atos has further extended the deadline for naming a preferred financial restructuring proposal until the week of June 10.
The company said this is due to a revision of "certain terms" of the proposals.
The conciliator has also requested more time "to maximise support from the company's financial creditors for their preferred proposal", Atos said in a statement.
Earlier this week, the reseller announced it was in further negotiations with two parties that submitted restructuring proposals.
The proposals come from: EPEI in consortium with Attestor Limited, and a consortium comprising Onepoint, Butler Industries, Econocom, and a group of Atos' creditors.
Both proposals are generally in line with the financial parameters set by Atos, including debt reduction and near-term and mid-term financing needs.
The company's board of directors has authorised management to work with financial creditors to secure maximum support for one of the proposals.
The implementation of either proposal will, however, result in a massive dilution of Atos' existing shareholders, the company revealed.
According to Atos, the on-going discussions are part of the conciliation process and are geared towards reaching the best possible outcome for the reseller by July 2024.
Tale as old as time
Atos, one of the key players in the European technology services market, has been facing enormous debt and several operational challenges in the last few years.
In August 2023, Atos even entered talks with EPEI to split and sell half its business to the private equity firm.
The deal later fell through due to "deal terms and pricing not being mutually agreed upon".
The reorganisation process, initiated at the start of 2024, is considered a critical way to ensure the company's future.
In May 2024, Atos revealed it had received four debt restructuring proposals from a group of Atos' existing creditors, Bain Capital, EPEI and Onepoint.
Atos' board of directors rejected Bain Capital's bid almost immediately due to the offer not meeting "the company's objectives of considering its full business scope".
Alongside the restructuring efforts, Atos is also in discussions with the French state regarding the potential acquisition of 100 per cent of its Advanced computing, mission-critical systems and cybersecurity products activities by the state agency APE.
The French government expressed interest in acquiring these activities earlier this year under Atos' big data & security (BDS) business, which represented around €1bn in revenue out of the €1.5bn total for the BDS division in 2023.