Atos SE, the troubled French IT company, said that Onepoint has withdrawn from talks to bail out the company and that billionaire Daniel Kretinsky’s EPEI has expressed an interest in restarting discussions.
Atos’s bondholders meanwhile have presented a revised restructuring proposal to meet its “short and medium-term liquidity requirements,” the company said in a statement on Wednesday. Atos also said it’s reached an agreement with the French government to protect “sovereign interests.”
The company said it still plans to reach an agreement with the majority of its creditors next month.
Onepoint and Kretinsky’s EPEI had been rivals for the agreement to bail out Atos, with the French technology company ultimately choosing the Onepoint consortium. Onepoint’s so-called “One Atos” plan would have massively diluted existing shareholders, but would also have helped the company avoid a breakup and remain under French ownership. Atos didn’t elaborate on why Onepoint and its consortium members, Paris-based investment firm Butler Industries and digital transformation specialist Econocom Group SE, had decided to end the talks.
Atos was once one of France’s premier tech companies, setting its sights on taking market share from Accenture Plc and Capgemini SE, before accounting scandals and huge debts left it on the verge of insolvency. Even though Atos has lost 90% of its value in the last year, it remains a key IT services provider in its home country, with strategic contracts linking it to the defense and nuclear industry, as well as the Olympic Games.