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Airbus is engaged on a proposal value as much as €1.8bn for Atos’s prized massive information and cyber safety unit, because the French IT providers firm seeks to restructure and minimize its debt load.

Airbus and Atos are set to announce on Wednesday that the aerospace and defence firm will enter due diligence on its deliberate provide that will place an enterprise worth of between €1.5bn and €1.8bn on the French group’s unit referred to as BDS, in line with individuals with data of the state of affairs. 

Atos’s negotiations to promote BDS mark a change in strategic course underneath lately appointed chair Jean Pierre Mustier, as he works to discover a resolution to how the corporate offers with €2.25bn in debt that matures in 2025.  

Atos’s market worth has slumped by greater than 90 per cent prior to now three years to €782mn, whereas Customary & Poor’s downgraded the corporate’s credit standing in November citing elevated liquidity dangers.

Airbus has made no secret of its ambitions to develop its cyber actions. Guillaume Faury, Airbus chief government, informed the Monetary Occasions in November the Toulouse-based firm wished to “develop in cyber”. 

The talks between Atos and Airbus over BDS should not unique, so different bidders should enter the body, individuals acquainted with the matter stated. 

French defence electronics group Thales, which has jet-fighter maker Dassault Aviation as its largest shareholder, has been considering BDS prior to now as a part of efforts to develop its cyber safety enterprise.

Thales has been contemplating its choices in latest weeks, one particular person briefed on the state of affairs stated. 

Airbus declined to remark. Atos and Thales didn’t reply to a request for remark. 

Airbus had been in talks final yr to purchase a minority stake within the Atos division referred to as Eviden, which incorporates BDS and the French firm’s cloud computing enterprise. Nevertheless, it pulled out after Chris Hohn, the hedge fund supervisor and a big shareholder, objected to the plan.

On the time, individuals near Airbus stated it withdrew as a result of it determined that purchasing a roughly 30 per cent stake would have been pricey whereas not giving it a lot say over how Eviden was run.

Mustier’s predecessor as Atos chair Bertrand Meunier had resisted promoting off components of Atos to pay down debt, as a substitute prioritising a plan to separate the corporate into two.

He reached an settlement on promoting Atos’s lossmaking legacy IT providers enterprise Tech Foundations to Czech billionaire Daniel Křetínský.

The remainder of Atos, utilizing the identify Eviden, would stay listed, with Křetínský anchoring a €900mn capital increase that will give him a 7.5 per cent stake. 

Nevertheless, many shareholders opposed the phrases of the cope with Křetínský, arguing he was paying too little for Tech Foundations. Some politicians additionally objected to the concept of getting a international shareholder personal a part of Eviden, which has expertise that’s used for France’s nuclear weapons arsenal. 

Underneath Mustier’s management, Atos is now renegotiating the phrases of the settlement with Křetínský, with assist from the corporate’s new lead shareholder Onepoint, which has constructed an 11 per cent stake.

Folks near Křetínský have stated talks will concentrate on getting him out of the Eviden leg of the deal.

“This can be a dialogue we’re comfortable to have and all of the gamers are all kind of aligned on that,” stated an individual near the Czech businessman.