Atos, two proposals for rescue: Onepoint and Kretinsky within the subject | EUROtoday

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Atos has obtained two revised restructuring proposals, as a part of the refinancing course of, aimed toward lowering debt and restoring profitability. The French IT firm subsequently declared that it had agreed with collectors on a provisional mortgage of 450 million euros (or 488.1 million {dollars}). Atos defined that the present proposals come from Czech billionaire Kretinsky's EP Equity Investment, in collaboration with the credit score fund Attestor Limited, and from a consortium made up of a bunch of collectors and banks with Onepoint, Butler Industries and Econocom.
Both would have introduced proposals in line with the goals set by Atos, together with debt discount and financing wants. Time is operating out and Atos and its collectors will attempt to attain an settlement by Wednesday for the restructuring of the corporate which could be closed by July. The two bids intention to save lots of what was as soon as one in every of France's main know-how firms, earlier than accounting scandals and large money owed left it getting ready to insolvency. Even although Atos has misplaced 88% of its worth over the previous yr, it stays a key supplier of IT companies in its house nation.

The provide led by French IT firm Onepoint, with the assistance of Butler Industries and Econocom Group SE, is joined by a bunch of a number of the firm's collectors, whereas Kretinsky's EP Equity is in consortium with turnaround investor Attestor Limited. Details of the affords will likely be printed on Atos' web site later as we speak, the corporate stated. A majority of the corporate's collectors will in the end need to vote for the popular refinancing proposal.

Atos nonetheless wants liquidity to maintain its enterprise operational and has stated it’s in search of additional interim funding of €350 million, on high of the €450 million agreed in April, as a part of revised proposals to cowl prices from July 2024 till the tip of the renovation. Atos stated it has additionally obtained affords for its sensible vitality enterprise, Worldgrid, that are underneath evaluation.

At the start of May, Atos declared that it had obtained proposals not solely from Kretinsky, but in addition from Bain Capital, a bunch of banks and Onepoint, which is the biggest shareholder of Atos, however the board of administrators had determined to not proceed with the latter. the interlocution. Now, after these two new revised proposals, the ultimate settlement needs to be reached by July. The implementation of the agreements will result in a big dilution of Atos' present shareholders.
In April the French state stated it was able to take motion to save lots of Atos and to stop strategic property for France from passing into the fingers of overseas operators. The proposal, which got here by way of a letter of intent despatched over the weekend of April 27-28, envisaged an organization valuation of between 700 million and 1 billion euros. Not sufficient by itself, nonetheless, to safe the group, which has been in monetary problem for a while.