The IT services company is running out of options as it seeks to refinance debts and sell off parts of its business. Credit: Atos French IT services company Atos has called on a third-party trustee to help it negotiate debt refinancing with its banks after plans to raise €720 million in new capital through a rights issue fell through. It announced it requested the appointment Monday, promising to give an update on the negotiations in due course. Last year, Atos revealed plans to split itself in two, selling off its shrinking legacy managed infrastructure services business, Tech Foundations, while retaining its more profitable digital services and security business under a new brand, Eviden. That project, though, has been hamstrung by a failure to reach an agreement with the potential buyer of Tech Foundations, and by dissent within the company about the best way forward. Last month, those struggles led Atos to appoint a new CEO, its fourth in little more than a year. Paul Saleh, previously the company’s CFO, was named CEO on Jan. 15, 2024. On Jan. 29, Atos rolled over a €1.5 billion loan for another six months, the first of two allowed extensions, but it needs a longer-term solution. Saleh’s financial expertise hasn’t yet proven sufficient to reassure the company’s creditors, prompting Atos to seek help from the trustee — or mandataire ad-hoc in French — to reach an agreement. Contacted Monday, the company said it was too early to identify the trustee. The trustee will only be involved in negotiations over the company’s financial debt, and won’t have any impact on employees, customers, or suppliers, Atos said. If the trustee’s help isn’t enough, the company hasn’t ruled out using other legal protection mechanisms available. French law includes a number of provisions to protect debtors, including the procédure de sauvegarde, which bears some similarities to a reorganization under Chapter 11 of the US Bankruptcy Code, allowing a company to continue operating while it reschedules its debts. Atos is still discussing the sale of Tech Foundations with EP Equity Investment. One sticking point is Atos wants to hold EPEI to an earlier agreement to invest in the capital of Eviden, the more modern half of Atos, in addition to buying the legacy services business, something EPEI is now reluctant to do given Atos’s financial problems. “There’s no certainty these negotiations will result in an agreement,” Atos said Monday. The two banks that offered to underwrite the €720 million rights issue of new shares, BNP Paribas and JP Morgan, won’t now given the changes in the market environment, Atos said. Meanwhile, Atos is seeking to raise funds by selling off other activities, including the possible sale of its big data and security business to Airbus, which also has a cybersecurity business of its own. Airbus is currently conducting due diligence checks, it said. Related content feature CEOs’ top priorities for IT leaders today Chief executives are displaying a deeper understanding of technology’s impact on achieving organizational objectives — and they are shifting their directives for IT leaders to ensure that impact is a success. By Mary Pratt May 13, 2024 11 mins Business IT Alignment Digital Transformation IT Strategy news analysis IBM’s watsonx.governance takes aim at AI auditing With regulation on the rise, IT leaders must ensure AI model safety and integrity. Big Blue believes it has an edge, offering audit trails, real-time monitoring, and platform flexibility. By Anirban Ghoshal May 13, 2024 6 mins IBM Generative AI Data Governance news Boomi burnishes API management capabilities The launch version of the framework comes with four agents — Boomi Answers, Boomi DesignGen, Boomi DataDetective, and Boomi Scribe. By John Leyden May 10, 2024 4 mins APIs PaaS feature TIAA modernizes the customer journey with AI The financial services organization overhauled its customer service operations, weaving together machine learning models, generative AI, and customer journey mapping to improve customer experience and predict trouble points. By Paula Rooney May 10, 2024 6 mins CIO 100 Digital Transformation Artificial Intelligence PODCASTS VIDEOS RESOURCES EVENTS SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe