A (small) breath of fresh air for Atos. The IT group announced on Tuesday, November 5, an agreement for the sale of its subsidiary Worldgrid, dedicated to the design of nuclear power plant control systems, to the French engineer Alten. Worldgrid will be sold “for an enterprise value of 270 million euros,” the Atos group announced in a press release. The transaction is expected to be finalized before the end of 2024.
With this sale, Atos seeks to reduce its debt, which has reached up to 4.8 billion euros. In the midst of restructuring, the IT group announced this sale in June.
The subsidiary’s solution equips 15% of the world’s nuclear fleet and counts among its customers the electricity supplier EDF and the designer and builder of power plants Framatome. Worldgrid has nearly 1,100 employees and generated a turnover of around 170 million euros in 2023.
Strategic, the activity was first coveted by the State, with certain deputies even pushing for its temporary nationalization. Former Minister of the Economy and Finance Bruno Le Maire committed to ensuring that Worldgrid’s activity “is within the scope which will remain under the control of public authorities”. However, the State does not have control over Alten, which is listed on the Paris Stock Exchange.
Atos pays off its debts
The flagging flagship is counting on its restructuring operations to turn things around and get out of debt. These must be implemented between November 2024 and January 2025. In recent weeks, the group has announced new contracts, notably with the European Space Agency (ESA) and with RATP.
It is now in discussions with the State to sell its strategic activities, which notably include supercomputers used for nuclear deterrence. In June, the French state made an offer of 700 million euros to prevent these sensitive activities from ending up in the hands of foreign actors. Atos, however, rejected this first version. Negotiations continue. In the meantime, the State has acquired a preferred share within Bull SA (which includes the supercomputer activity) to have “reinforced rights, included in the statutes and which in certain cases can go as far as a veto”.
Source: www.usinenouvelle.com
