- Belmer will resign just 9 months after starting as CEO
- Atos will split the BDS cybersecurity unit
- It plans to sell assets worth 700 million euros
- Shares fall 27%
PARIS – June 14 (Reuters) – French IT company Atos (ATOS.PA) scared off investors on Tuesday with a plan to split its operations and sell assets, as well as the departure of CEO Rodolphe Belmer, provoking that their shares fell more than 25%.
Belmer’s departure, which took office in January, follows weeks of reports from council divisions over the company’s renewal.
Belmer and the council clashed over the fate of the BDS cybersecurity unit, sources close to the matter said, as he was willing to sell the business while the council wanted to keep it.
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Atos is considered strategic by the French government for its high-tech assets such as the manufacture of supercomputers and software used by the military and the finance ministry to manage tax collection. Former Prime Minister Edouard Philippe is a member of its board of directors.
Belmer’s exit was announced just an hour before a day of the capital market that investors hoped could restore confidence after a series of setbacks that have wiped out two-thirds of Atos’ market value during the last year.
Belmer, the former head of the satellite company Eutelsat (ETL.PA), will leave Atos on 30 September. Shares of Atos fell as much as 27% in the first trading in Paris and almost 19% as of 09:31 GMT.
On Monday, they fell more than 10%, following a media report on their future strategy.
The weakness of its shares has made Atos a subject of acquisition rumors. A finance ministry official said the government was closely monitoring progress and noted that strategic assets were protected from hostile acquisitions by a decree on foreign investment control.
SPLIT-UP Atos plans to split into two listed companies and said it had appointed two deputy CEOs, Nourdine Bihmane and Philippe Oliva, to head each of them.
The division would aim to “unlock value” as part of a broader plan that would cost about 1.6 billion euros in 2022-2023, the company said.
Atos will sell assets worth about 700 million euros, Belmer said Tuesday in a call with reporters.
It has already sold its 2.5% stake in payment company Worldline (WLN.PA) as part of its alliance plan, raising € 220 million.
As part of the separation, Atos is considering separating and combining BDS with its service operations, especially those designed to help customers move to the cloud.
Named Evidian, these joint operations generated € 4.9 billion in revenue in 2021, 5% more than the previous year, and an operating margin of 7.8%.
The remaining part of Atos will include its declining and loss-making IT infrastructure management services, which had sales of 5.4 billion euros last year.
Atos said he intended to return to the growth and benefits of these activities in 2026.
Asked if he would benefit from the two-year compensation approved by shareholders in the event of an abrupt departure of the CEO within two years, Belmer said he had proposed leaving with a 9-month salary.
Earlier, the head of the pay-TV channel Canal +, owned by Vivendi, Belmer had promised a new beginning for Atos after a sudden loss of investor confidence following the reservations expressed by auditors about the accounts of two entities. and a failed attempt to acquire an American company. affect investor confidence.
The review of the two U.S. entities did not reveal any material inaccuracies, Atos said.
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Report by Mathieu Rosemain; additional reports by Tassilo Hummel and Nicolas Delame; edited by Bradley Perrett and Jason Neely
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