Split: Atos stays the course and confirms its financial objectives

“Everything is going according to schedule.” For its first speech since the blow of the withdrawal of Airbus, Atos took care to display a confident face, announcing a 2.2% increase in its turnover in the first quarter, to 2.8 billion euros and confirming its plan to split into two divisions “by the end of 2023”.

The IT services specialist still forecasts for 2023 an organic change in turnover of between -1.0% and +1.0%. “The group’s performance continues to improve,” ***ured Nourdine Bihmane, Deputy CEO, during a press conference on Thursday.

“In discussion with other potential players”

At the end of March, the French group nevertheless saw the scenario fly away which he was studying for his future cyber and Big Data entity, Eviden (ex-Evidian, the group has changed its name). The European aeronautical group Airbus, with which it was in discussion as part of the split, had finally given up taking a stake of nearly 30% in this subsidiary.

Not enough to shake the French group? “We are on the right track,” ***ured Diane Galbe, the general manager. “Ten months after the announcement of our transformation plan, we are able to show constant improvement in our fundamentals,” she said.

After a troubled period marked by a governance crisis and heavy losses, Atos has indeed launched in June 2022 a project to split its activities. Objective: to separate its Tech Foundations outsourcing branch (management of corporate IT servers, hybrid cloud), in decline, from its cyber and Big Data division, now called Eviden.

Asked about the consequences of Airbus’ withdrawal, the CEO simply indicated that her group was “in discussion with other potential players on equity investments”, without further details. At this stage, Atos has only opened the door to a stake below 30%.

Five new administrators

In terms of financial results, the disparity in performance between the group’s two divisions is confirmed: Eviden’s turnover increased by 9.1% to 1.33 billion, while Tech Foundations experienced a drop in sales of 3.4%, to 1.47 billion.

“This is a managed and calculated drop in turnover,” Nourdine Bihmane said of Tech Foundations. The division, in strong loss in 2022, continues to sell non-strategic activities and to reduce its workforce, with “very concrete and visible results in terms of margins”, he noted. “The priority is value rather than volume,” he insisted. He mentioned several large contracts, notably with Airbus and Technip.

In addition, Atos has appointed five new directors and “new changes will be announced very soon”, indicated Diane Galbe. Asked about the hypothesis that these changes could include the replacement of the president, Bertrand Meunier – that small shareholders want to land at the general meeting scheduled for June 28 – she only replied that it “is up to the board of directors”.