Panic grips Athos

In recent days, the group’s loan and bond prices have fallen by 70%. Daniel Kratinsky sees the sale of the historic activities as a compromise and prevents inevitable restructuring.

His teams arrived from Prague on Friday for a meeting that will last the whole weekend. According to a source close to Atos, Daniel Kratinsky is then expected in Paris early in the week for a “last chance meeting”, which should take place by Wednesday. It is the “dread of the dare,” adds another. The Czech businessman should then speak to Atos president Jean-Pierre Moustier.

Two months ago, the IT services group resumed negotiations to sell its historic IT fleet management activities to Daniel Kratinsky. Discussions have been going badly for a month. The billionaire agreed twice to increase his purchase price from 100 to 150 then to 170 million euros for the branch, which generates 5.4 billion euros in turnover, generates 1% margins and consumes a lot of cash.

“The operation is off to a bad start but not dead,” a person close to Atos wants to believe. The group has continued to raise its demands, now demanding 500 million euros from Daniel Kretynski. “We wonder if Atos doesn’t want the operation to fail,” asks someone close to the negotiations. Now at the heart of the debate, the contract guarantees enforcement that neither Atos nor the businessman wants to take. These risks of fines, in the event of poor implementation of IT systems among its customers, weigh approximately 1.5 billion euros in provisions.

Legal action is imminent

The risk of the transaction’s failure is spooking investors who fear the start of legal action, a settlement, while Atos is reeling under 4.8 billion euros in debt. Atos’ share price has halved since January 1. As a result, the value of its debt collapses. A 500 million euro loan, which Atos must repay next November, has fallen by 65%. Another bond worth 1.9 billion euros is also down 75%! “It’s a panic, all investors think that Atos will have to write off part of its debt in its restructuring,” explains the group’s junior shareholder.

French banks are also concerned. They are all at the forefront of the inevitable restructuring of Atos’ debt. BNP Paribas, Société Générale, Crédit Agricole, Natixis and CIC have two loans: one of 1.5 billion euros that matures in January 2025 and a credit line of 900 million euros that must be repaid in November 2025.

Cancel half the debts

Last Tuesday, a meeting was held between Atos, its creditors and the Economy Ministry’s Industrial Restructuring Committee, BFM Business reported. “It went badly, the banks were furious that the sale to Daniel Kratinsky might fail,” explained a source familiar with the discussions. “This scenario will send the group into the wall.” Atos’ debt values ​​have collapsed since that day. “We wanted details on the options for disbanding Atos, the sale to Kratinsky, cyber security to Airbus or the rest of OnePoint,” notes one of the group’s chief bankers. “We left without an answer.”

As per our information, banks are testing the resale of their debt in the market to assess their value. “Even our loans have lost 50% of their value,” notes one banker. “We are entering a moral spiral of losing confidence.” As part of the settlement, they will have to give up half of their loans, or more than a billion euros.

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