France’s authorities has despatched a proposal letter to Atos SE proposing to take over elements of the corporate that the state considers to be strategic, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire stated on Sunday.
Le Maire didn’t present a proposal value for the proposed deal, which incorporates the corporate’s supercomputer, quantum computing and cyber merchandise operations. The annual gross sales of these companies are round €900 million ($962 million), in accordance with his workplace.
France’s authorities intends to carry non-public firms right into a consortium ought to the supply proceed, Le Maire stated. He didn’t specify which firms however stated they might all be French.
“The purpose is that the strategic actions of Atos keep underneath unique French management,” Le Maire stated on LCI tv.
Final week, Atos stated it was looking for additional cash and may have to additional cut back its debt. The corporate had beforehand stated it wanted to boost about €1.2 billion of latest cash to fund the enterprise via 2025 and minimize debt by roughly half to €2.4 billion.
Atos was certainly one of France’s premier tech firms earlier than a collection of setbacks — together with accounting errors and revenue warnings — left it on the verge of insolvency.
When plans to dump property to Airbus SE and Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky stumbled earlier this yr, the French authorities was compelled to step in with interim financing. A court-appointed mediator is now dealing with its conciliation course of with collectors and banks.
