Atos has announced the resignation of its chief executive, Paul Saleh. In a market update published this morning, the French IT firm said that Saleh had decided to leave the company after having overseen the negotiation of a financial restructuring plan that would guarantee its operation for the next 12 months.
Saleh, who was appointed to run Atos in January, will be succeeded in his position by the chairman of the board of directors, Jean-Pierre Mustier – the company’s fifth chief executive in as little as two years. “The Board,” said Atos, “expresses its sincere thanks to Paul Saleh, salutes his commitment and contributions during the past year and wishes him the best for his future endeavours.”
Atos restructuring plan aimed to cap years of turmoil
Employing 95,000 people and present in over 69 countries, Atos oversees multiple public sector IT projects in Europe and the UK. According to the company, its purpose ‘is to help design the future of the information space,’ helping its customers and society generally to ‘live, work and develop sustainably, in a safe and secure information space.’
These ambitions have taken a battering in recent years, however, amid a failed pivot to primarily cloud-based services. Originally intended to help the French IT firm catch up with its hyperscaler rivals, the strategy led instead to a rapid turnover in senior leadership at the company, declining profits, market disinterest in buying up key assets, a massive increase in its debt pile and its part-nationalisation by the French state.
A financial restructuring plan agreed with its creditors earlier this month, however, appears to have guaranteed Atos’ future for the foreseeable future. According to its market update, this will include €800m in short-term financing, €1.75bn in longer-term funding, a reduction of its debt pile by €3.1bn and the postponement of that debt’s maturation until 2029. “The Company reminds [investors],” it added, “that the implementation of the financial restructuring will result in [the] massive dilution for Atos’ existing shareholders who would, if they do not participate in the proposed capital increases, hold less than 0.1% of the share capital.”
Court of Nanterre hearing to usher in plan scheduled for autumn
The implementation of Atos’ financial restructuring plan is part of an accelerated set of safeguard proceedings under French law. This has been opened by the specialised Commercial Court of Nanterre, to be jointly overseen by judicial administrators and representatives of the IT firms’ creditors. The court will rule on the legality of the plan at a hearing scheduled for 15 October.
The process follows a dramatic competition among competing investor consortia to bail out Atos. This included bids from Bain Capital, a consortium led by the firm’s anchor investor David Layani, and Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky. All were eventually rejected by Atos, with Kretinsky having shifted his attention toward acquiring the UK’s Royal Mail postal service.
