The ambitious refinancing plan to help Atos out of the crisis has been postponed by a week. However, there is not much time left to waste.

The French IT giant Atos has dirty papers. She is struggling with significant debts that she cannot repay because more money is flowing out of the till than coming in. Atos must repay more than 3.6 billion euros of debt by the end of 2025 and hopes to repay 1.2 billion euros this year. An ambitious refinancing plan was proposed in early April to convert debt into equity.

This plan should normally be completed tomorrow, but salvation is not yet in sight for Atos. The current proposal needs to be adjusted to “current business results and trends” and potential investors need time to digest this information.

A postponement does not necessarily mean a cancellation, as the final deadline for completing the refinancing is set for July. In order to create the necessary financial flexibility, Atos has concluded an agreement in principle with various banks and the French state for interim financing of 450 million euros.

Bad results

For Atos, a capital injection would not come a second too soon. Financial results for the first quarter of 2024 were once again disappointing. Atos recorded a decline in sales of 2.6 percent. The resulting operating profit halved to 48 million euros within a year. Atos ended 2023 with a net loss of more than $3 billion.

Several takeover attempts failed. Airbus recently pulled out of the takeover of the BSD division. A government plan to nationalize the company also bore little fruit. Poor financial results are accompanied by unrest at the top: with current CEO Paul Saleh, the French company is already in its fifth year in 2.5 years.

There is light at the end of the dark tunnel, but it is not yet visible to Atos. Will the company recover in time? Nobody dares to bet their money on it.