The managing director of the French group detailed this morning the new strategic plan of the group. He will leave the group “at the latest on September 5”. The Atos title tumbled 26% on Tuesday afternoon.
One group, but two separate listed companies by the end of 2023, each with its own financial structure, strategy, dedicated management team, and an independent Board of Directors. This is the new strategic plan envisaged by the management of Atos to turn around the group, which has been in difficulty for two years. Rodolphe Belmer, the managing director, presented it on Tuesday morning ahead of an investor day. An announcement that greatly displeased the financial markets: after losing nearly 11% on Monday, the Atos stock plummeted 26% on Tuesday afternoon on the Paris Stock Exchange.
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On the one hand, SpinCo (Evidian) will combine its digital transformation, big data and cybersecurity activities. Generating strong growth and high margins. It will have a plan of 0.4 billion euros to accelerate its growth.
On the other hand, TFCo (which will keep the Atos name) will concentrate its historical outsourcing, digital workspace and professional services activities. It will have a plan of 1.1 billion euros to carry out a complete turnaround by 2026, financed by part of the capital of the new company Evidiant.
« This new path that Atos would potentially take would aim to optimize our performance in the two distinct markets in which the Group is positioned, which have fundamentally different dynamics: on the one hand the infrastructure market, requiring significant assets, on the other hand, the market for digital applications and security.Rodolphe Belmer explained.
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Leaving in September
The contemplated project involves a prior reorganization that would be completed in the second half of 2023, before the listing and distribution of SpinCo shares by the end of 2023. The Group estimates around 1.6 billion euros the total amount of its financing needs for the period 2022-2023, until the envisaged separation becomes effective. The group announces this morning that it has already sold 200 million euros of non-strategic assets within the scope of the future Evidiant company and is in discussion for activities of an amount equivalent to another 500 million. It is also still looking for a partner for Unify, its unified communications software offering.
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Each of the two future companies will have its own managing director, who will be Nourdine Bihmane for TFCO and Philippe Oliva for the future Evidiant. Rodolphe Bellmer will leave the group by September, “no later than September 5“, once the reorganization is on track. “My current position as CEO will become superfluoushe explained. Arrived on 1is last January, Rodolphe Belmer and the chairman of the board disagreed on the strategy to follow. According to the terms of his contract, he will receive compensation, “un parachute“, equivalent to nine months of salary, which was provided in the event of termination of office following a merger or demerger affecting Atos.
For its part, Bercy announced that it was following “carefully» the Atos folder. “We are of course attentive to the shareholding of the company“, considered as “strategic in many respects for France“, we added in the office of the Minister of Economy and Finance. The State also recalls that a decree on the control of foreign investments “protects the capital of strategic companies from attacks by foreign investors».
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