Atos locks in $1.8 billion to fund restructuring plan

French IT services company Atos has announced that a €1.675 billion (an estimated US$1.8 billion) financial restructuring plan could be in place soon, after it acquired funding to cover the initiative and reached a Lock-up Agreement with a group of banks and bondholders.

In a release issued yesterday, Paul Saleh, Atos CEO, said the moves put “us a step closer to filing the plan with the Tribunal of commerce by the end of July as originally targeted. We have also secured near-term liquidity for the company as well as long-term financing necessary to fund the business. With this plan, Atos will have an improved financial position and a stronger credit profile.”

Prior to the hearing with France’s top commercial court, the company said it plans to “pursue its discussion with non-secured financial creditors who have not yet signed or acceded to the Lock-up Agreement” in order to obtain their access to it by July 22.

As part of the of the interim financing plan, two previously announced deals — proceeds from the potential sale of the firm’s Worldgrid business unit for €270 million to engineering consultant Alten SA, and of the French Sovereign activities of Atos’ Big Data and Security (BDS) business — will be used to repay reinstated debt.

In mid-April of this year, the French government stepped in with a provisional offer of up to US$1.08 billion (€1 billion) in return for 100% ownership of the parts of the company’s BDS division, in which France has a sovereign interest, but stopped short of full nationalization of  the company.

Among the services Atos provides for the French government are supercomputing facilities for the maintenance of the nation’s nuclear deterrent, and the development and maintenance of mobile IT systems to its defense forces.

French Minister of Finance Bruno Le Maire said at the time that the government had manifested its interest in acquiring all of Atos’  sovereign activities, and in an interview with French TV channel LCI said, “the goal is to for strategic activities to remain under French control.”

There was additional financial support in early May when Onepoint, an existing business partner and currently Atos’ largest shareholder, announced it had formed a consortium with French investment fund Butler Industries to invest in the company. It said at the time it planned to keep Atos together, focusing on the vertical integration of Atos’ businesses, which include server manufacturing, cloud hosting, infrastructure management, cybersecurity, and consulting.

“The aim is to seize the opportunity to build a French champion of large-scale transformations for businesses and public actors, with a turnover of €11 billion, for about 100,000 employees,” Onepoint said in its offer letter. “Cybersecurity will be an integral part of the managed services-to-infrastructure continuum.”

The deal was formally approved last month that, together with the offers from the French government and Alten, was able to finally lift the longstanding cloud of uncertainty that had been hanging over the company.

In a statement released on June 11, Atos said, “the Board of Directors has concluded, under the aegis of the Conciliator, that the proposal received from the Onepoint consortium aligns with the corporate interest of Atos, including its employees, customers, suppliers, creditors, shareholders and other stakeholders.”