As a regular analyst and commentator on Atos SE strategy, and the IT Services industry in general, I speak with 3rd party advisors, investment firms and other interested parties. These conversations address a wide spectrum of topics, ranging from financials, competitors and unique selling points, all the way to how to build the right sales or delivery teams.
There are however some questions that frequently pop-up in these conversations. So i thought I might spend some time answering them in a new series of blog posts.
Today we will address the topic of Atos selling assets.
On June 14, 2022 Atos organised a Capital Markets Day and presented a storyline about their strategy for the future of the company. In that presentation the company announced their plans to split the company in 2 parts. This is obviously a very ambitious plan, which is I believe a result of a thorough market review and taking conclusions from serious market situation consequences for companies like Atos.
The presentation shown at that event, shows on slide 22 that Atos will sell 700 million euro of Non-Core Assets by 2023. The recurring question in my conversations with clients and interested parties since then has been; what are the None-Core Assets that Atos is planning to sell?
It is my understanding that the first asset that Atos sold as part of this strategy was their remaining stake in Wordline.
This was announced on June 14, 2022.
“As a result of the placement and derivative transaction, Atos has raised net proceeds of ca. €220 million” (link)
The second intended sale of a non-core asset was announced on November 17, 2022. At that date Atos put out a press release informing us of entering into exclusive negotiations to sell Atos Italia S.p.A.
Atos, a global leader in digital transformation, today announces that it has entered into exclusive negotiations with Lutech S.p.A. (“Lutech”), an Italian provider of IT services and solutions, for the sale of its Italian operations (“Atos Italia”) with a 100% cash consideration. (link)
The size of the 2nd sale of a None-Core Asset is not fully disclosed. And Atos says that with this sell they would achieve 2/3 of the intended 700 million euro divestment program. So with the 220 million from selling their remaining stake in Worldline, we can now guestimate the size of this Atos Italia deal to be around 240 million euro.
The third part of the divestment program to raise the announced 700 million euro, is yet to be disclosed. There might be even more parts following.
However, according to Diane Galbe (senior vice president in charge of strategy and mergers and acquisitions at Atos), confirmed in an article in the Financial Post that “…Atos was still seeking a buyer for some of its Unified Communications & Collaboration (UCC) legacy activities.“. This can then be the 3rd leg under their divestment program, or maybe more legs will be needed.
We will have to wait and see how this plays out. But it seems Atos is well underway to secure financing of their ambitious plans for 2023.
Disclaimer: Paul, who is the author of this blog post, holds at time of writing a small amount of stocks in Atos SE. All information in this blog post is believed to be public information, enriched with the authors personal opinion. No confidential information is being shared.