The way is clear for Daniel Kretinsky. Candidates for the acquisition of Atos must present their offers on Friday. Onepoint, the IT services group’s largest shareholder, and its ally Walter Butler are expected. On the contrary, the Czech billionaire has been lying in wait for several weeks, waiting for a “green light” from the government.
Although the State has just announced the purchase of Atos’ sensitive activities, “there are no longer obstacles to an offer from Daniel Kretinksy,” explains a source close to the matter. “He is going to present one,” say several sources close to the group. When contacted, his entourage did not want to comment.
The path is all the clearer because the billionaire is unanimous. First in Atos, which now demands 1.1 billion euros in cash from its buyers, compared to 600 million euros just two weeks ago, to recover by the end of 2025.
The group now plans to pay off two-thirds of its total debt of 4.85 billion euros, or 3.2 billion euros. The Ministry of Economy also assured a few weeks ago that he had “very good relations with Daniel Kretinsky, who behaved very well during the restructuring of Casino.” He invested 750 million in the distribution group while his group generated seven billion euros of margins in energy in 2023.
Kretinsky richer than Layani
As for the creditors who will choose the buyer, the trend is the same. “To save Atos a lot of capital will be needed and David Layani does not have as much as Kretinsky,” adds one of the group’s main bankers. Furthermore, he borrows the money that he will invest and, if he wins, he will contribute it. “Atos your company that no one knows how much it is really worth!” Onepoint has a turnover of almost 500 million euros and is worth, according to its founder, one billion euros.
Your environment ensures that you will invest with creditors willing to pay. Onepoint and Walter Butler could inject around 600 million euros and would therefore not have the majority of Atos’ capital, but rather around 30% or 35%, together with investment funds. “Bercy is aware and has no problem with this,” says one of his relatives.
A duel that would become a duo?
David Layani advocates maintaining the integrity of the group to echo the dismantling that Casino suffered for its acquisition by Daniel Kretinsky. He is also looking to attract Atos executives, while his company Onepoint is already involved in digital consulting. “He is the only one who carries out an industrial project,” explains a manager who remembers that the CFE-CGC, Atos’ first union organization, supports him.
Given such a balance of power, can the Layani-Kretinsky duel become a duo? Last year, the Czech billionaire wanted to buy Atos’ historic information management activities, while the founder of Onepoint has always been interested in the other pillar of the group dedicated to the digital transformation of companies. On both sides we cannot rule out that in the end the two men agree to share Atos between them.
The creditors of the IT group, with the approval of the judicial administrator Hélène Bourbouloux, will have to decide before the conciliation ends, at the latest by the end of August.
Source: BFM TV
