Airbus and Atos in negotiations over potential billion-dollar deal.
Atos, however, has also received a non-binding offer for individual parts of the BDS business and wants to primarily negotiate with Airbus. However, the talks are still in an early stage. The "Financial Times" has already reported on this, and both Airbus and Atos have confirmed the discussions.
The acquisition of the cybersecurity and data division of Atos would be an important step for Airbus to grow as a leading company in aviation, defense, and cybersecurity and accelerate its digital transformation. However, there is no guarantee that a deal will be reached. Initially, Atos' stock rose by twelve percent, but fell throughout the trading day and ultimately closed 5.75 percent lower. Airbus' stocks in the DAX also closed lower with a decrease of 2.96 percent.
The US investment bank Jefferies estimates the valuation of the BDS business at 1.5 to 2.5 billion euros, which would be positive for Airbus shareholders. However, a bidding war could lead to a higher price. From the perspective of Atos shareholders, the mentioned valuation is not a particularly attractive price. The IT service provider has been seeking solutions for some time due to losses in its core business and high debt. Originally, the plan was to split the company into the Big Data and Cybersecurity divisions in mid-2022.
At that time, Airbus had also shown interest in cybersecurity, but later declined. Meanwhile, the traditional IT service business of Atos, called Tech Foundations, is up for sale, while a capital increase and smaller stake sales are being considered for the Eviden division, which also includes the BDS business. However, the capital increase did not receive much approval from investors and had to be adjusted accordingly. The planned sale of Atos' core business is also being delayed.
Therefore, the management plans to sell more assets than previously planned, possibly even the entire BDS business. Atos' cybersecurity business is classified as security-relevant in France. For example, the company's supercomputers are used for simulation calculations of nuclear bomb tests that France no longer conducts with real nuclear weapons.
Therefore, the division of Atos is politically controversial. This also affects the possible sale of Tech Foundations to the holding company EPEI of Czech businessman Daniel Kretinsky, as well as a minority stake of EPEI in the cybersecurity division. Important shareholders of Atos are Onepoint with 11 percent and the German Siemens Group with just under 5 percent.
Siemens sold its IT service business to Atos in 2011 and received shares in the company. In recent years, the value of the corporation has significantly declined. In 2019, it was still over 10 billion euros, but has now dropped to less than 750 million euros.
