(Reuters) – French technology company Atos on Monday said it was in talks with its banks about refinancing its debt, and that conditions for its initially planned rights issue were no longer valid due to “changes in market environment”.
The standby underwriting commitment by BNP Paribas and JPMorgan for the 720 million euro ($776 million) rights issue was also no longer in effect, it added.
The company said it had engaged an independent third party procedure to support and oversee the negotiations with banks to reach a rapid outcome.
The IT service provider had in November said it was considering accessing capital markets and the sale of additional assets to tackle the capital raising plan, a 1.5 billion euro term loan maturing in January 2025, and 750 million euros in bonds maturing May 2025.
Talks to sell Tech Foundations, Atos’s loss-making IT consulting arm, to Czech businessman Daniel Kretinsky’s EPEI group are ongoing, with “no certainty that these negotiations will result in an agreement”, Atos said.
The group had warned in January that its free cash flow would be slightly below its initial target for the second half of 2023.
($1 = 0.9276 euros)
(Reporting by St phanie Hamel in Gdansk; editing by Milla Nissi)
