The Alix AM fund, a minority shareholder of the Atos group, filed a complaint on Friday in Paris with the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) for active and passive corruption surrounding the sale of the group’s subcontracting activities to businessman Daniel Kretinsky, the company learned. AFP by a source close to the matter. When consulted, the PNF confirmed having received this complaint, which is currently being analyzed. Alix AM’s attorney could not immediately be reached.
The Czech billionaire, involved in the ongoing rescue of distributor Casino, will acquire the historic and heavily indebted subsidiary of French computer group Atos, according to a deal announced on August 1.
Since 2019, the group of 110,000 employees has been facing a dizzying drop in its valuation and poor commercial and financial results, from which it is trying to escape by selling its outsourcing business (maintenance of computer assets), in structural decline. Therefore, it intends to better dedicate itself to its new, more dynamic activities, focused on artificial intelligence, supercomputers and cybersecurity, called Eviden.
“Opacity”
If the operation comes to an end, no later than the first quarter of 2024, one of the businessman’s companies will take control of the historical subsidiary – which will maintain the Atos name -, made up of some 52,000 employees worldwide. This operation sparked numerous criticisms, among others from minority shareholders such as the Alix AM fund.
According to Mediapart, this fund sent a letter on September 16 to Atos management and its directors to criticize the “opacity” surrounding this sales proposal and its “relevance.” In the same letter, according to the research site, the Alix AM fund called on Atos “to provide detailed explanations about the operations” underway, and announced legal actions to “defend the interests of the company and those of its shareholders against all members of the Board of Directors.
The protest also took a political turn, with a forum in early August involving 82 Republican senators and deputies stating that Atos should be “remained absolutely under French control.” On September 11, Atos president Bertrand Meunier defended this sale by explaining that Tech Foundations, the structure that houses the outsourcing activities, “needed €1.1 billion in restructuring.” If the sale is successful, “this restructuring will become entirely the responsibility of EPEI”, Daniel Kretinsky’s investment company.
Source: BFM TV
