Atos announced on Monday that it had received a non-binding letter of intent from the French government to acquire 100% of its supercomputing, critical systems and cybersecurity businesses.

In a press release, the technology group said it welcomed the proposal "with satisfaction", which would be based on an indicative enterprise value of between 700 million and one billion euros.

By way of comparison, the total market capitalization of Atos is currently less than 250 million euros.

On the Paris stock exchange, the share jumped by almost 15% in early trading on Monday.

From the company's point of view, such a project would make it possible to protect the French government's strategic imperatives of sovereignty.

A due diligence phase (consultation of financial statements) could therefore begin shortly, with a view to issuing a non-binding confirmatory offer by the beginning of June.

According to Atos, the Advanced Computing, Mission-Critical Systems and Cybersecurity Products businesses represent sales of around €1 billion, out of a total of €1.5 billion for the entire Data and Security Division (BDS).

At the same time, the Group says it has revised the parameters of its financial restructuring framework presented earlier this month, now estimating the cash required to finance its business over the period 2024-2025 at 1.1 billion euros, compared with 600 million euros hitherto.

As previously envisaged, these funds would have to be provided in the form of debt and/or equity by existing stakeholders or third-party investors.

Note that these parameters are based on the current Atos perimeter as a whole, without taking into account the proposed partial takeover by the French state.

The situation is becoming a little clearer, but dilution will nevertheless remain significant", commented Oddo BHF analysts, in view of these significantly revised financing requirements.

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