The Airbus general assembly that is being held today should be calm. Its minority shareholder, the activist fund The Children Investment (TCI), was quick to get involved to prevent the group from embarking on the acquisition of Atos. To avoid a sling at its general meeting, Airbus gave in three weeks ago to take over 30% of the capital of Evidian, the Atos subsidiary that will consolidate its computer digitization, cloud and above all, its cybersecurity nugget this summer.
But the planemaker “is still discussing with Atos a partnership that can take various forms, with or without equity participation,” management said, without elaborating. Therefore, negotiations should resume once the general meeting has passed. “Airbus believes that keeping 30% of Evidian is not enough,” deciphers a source. Airbus is ready to take control but Atos doesn’t want to let go. The objective is not to leave the field open to his rival Thales either.
However, the advocacy group had declined to make an offer for Evidian earlier in the year. Its first shareholder, the Dassault group, had then blocked the ambitions of the French State, also a Thales shareholder, which was in favor of it. The head of Dassault, Charles Edelstenne “does not want to embark on a complicated meccano and considers that Evidian is too far from Thales’s profession,” explains a person close to the family empire. “Atos doesn’t like us so much that to win the bet we would have had to pay twice as much as the others,” adds a Thales executive.
The challenge of the combat aircraft of the future
But here too, at Thales, we promise to always be interested in Atos’s cybersecurity nugget. “It continues to be our objective but we will not do anything hostile,” justifies a close friend of the group. Thales remains persona non grata at Atos. So what does he do? “We don’t know what the Dassaults are playing at,” an actor in the case mocks. They also want to prevent Airbus from getting its hands on cybersecurity, which would be a great advantage for the design of the Scaf (air combat system of the future, editor’s note).” This position war could well benefit Atos.
A handful of small shareholders, led by Sycomore, will call for the change of half of the board of directors at the next general meeting scheduled for June. Above all, they demand that the Evidian spin-off project be put to their vote. Some are already wondering about the possibility of giving it up so that Atos can continue on its own. The clash between Airbus and Dassault could lead to a status quo for the IT services group.
Source: BFM TV
