Ailing French IT firm Atos says it received four restructuring offers

PARIS: Debt-laden French IT company Atos on Monday confirmed it had received four distinct offers from investors to restructure its debt and inject cash into the business, adding it would decide which one to pursue by the end of the month.

The offers came from a consortium of Atos' banks, from Atos' largest shareholder Onepoint and from an investment firm linked to Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky teamed up with investment fund Attestor.

A fourth offer from Bain Capital has already been discarded by the board.

Atos said it would assess the three offers while in parallel negotiating a full takeover of its most strategic assets, including cybersecurity and supercomputing, with the French state.

The company on Monday also confirmed that a first agreement for a temporary credit facility of 100 million euros ($107.64 million) was signed with some of its creditors, while talks with banks and the state to provide another 350 million euros had also made progress.

The group, which has been in talks with its banks for several weeks to negotiate refinancing, has said it needs 1.1 billion in cash to finance its business over the period 2024-2025.

Atos said that any restructuring "probably implies radical changes in the capital structure of the company and a significant issuing of new shares that will lead to a massive dillution of existing shareholders".

Once a celebrated French technology flagship company part of the bluechip CAC-40 stock index, and headed by current European Union Industry Commissioner Thierry Breton, Atos had grown quickly through acquisitions, but has made one strategic mistake after another against a backdrop of unstable governance.