Capital/Financing Update • Jul 15, 2024
Capital/Financing Update
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1 As defined in June 30, 2024 press release: provision of secured new money debt in an amount from €1.5 billion to €1.675 billion in the form of new secured financings (the "New Secured Financings") as well as €75 million in the form of backstop in cash of the Rights Issue (the "Equity Financings Backstop", together with the New Secured Financings, the "New Financings").
2 A Lock-Up Agreement is an agreement under the terms of which the signatories undertake to support and carry out any steps or actions reasonably necessary for the implementation and completion of the Company's financial restructuring. The terms and conditions of the Lock-Up Agreement are customary and include a commitment by the signatory creditors to support the financial restructuring in accordance with the principles agreed in the Agreement on the Restructuring Terms, and accordingly to sign the required contractual documentation.
Paris, France – July 15, 2024 – Atos SE ("Atos" or the "Company") reaches another important step in its financial restructuring and announces today the successful funding of its financial restructuring plan, as well as a Lock-Up Agreement reached with a group of banks and a group of bondholders (the "Lock-Up Agreement") willing to support the agreement on the terms of the financial restructuring announced on June 30, 2024 (the "Agreement on the Restructuring Terms").
Jean-Pierre Mustier, Chairman of Atos' Board of Directors said: "The signing of a Lock-Up Agreement with a majority of our main financial creditors is a key milestone in our financial restructuring process and I want to thank the entire management team for their outstanding work over the past few months. This important step ensures the sustainability of Atos' operations in the best interest of our employees and clients."
Paul Saleh, Atos' Chief Executive Officer declared: "We have successfully reached an agreement on our financial restructuring plan, with €1.675 billion of new financing secured and a lock-up agreement with a group of banks and a group of bondholders, which puts us a step closer to filing the plan with the Tribunal of commerce by end of July as originally targeted. We have also secured near-term liquidity for the Company as well as a long-term financing necessary to fund the business. With this plan, Atos will have an improved financial position and a stronger credit profile."
Following its press release dated July 5, 2024, Atos announces that the targeted New Secured Financings of up to €1.675 billion, as part of the syndication for the backstop of the New Financings, are reached and committed by a group of banks for 50% and a group of bondholders for 50%.
The New Secured Financings are allocated between the Banks3 and the Bondholders4 at June 14, 2024, after close of market (the "Record Date") as follows:
In addition to their €837.5 million commitment, Bondholders at the Record Date will also be providing €75 million in the form of backstop in cash of the Rights Issue (together the "Bondholders New Financings").
3 As defined in Schedule 1
4 As defined in Schedule 1
New Secured Financings backstopped by a group of bondholders to be syndicated until July 22, 2024, 6:00 p.m. CET to allow remaining Bondholders as at the Record Date to take their pro rata share in the New Financings
As announced in its press releases of June 30, 2024 and July 5, 2024, a syndication period for the backstop of the Bondholders New Financings has already been completed allowing all Bondholders as at the Record Date to commit before July 3, 2024 to backstop these financings. This syndication process allowed to fully secure the funding of the Bondholders New Financings.
In order to allow the Bondholders at the Record Date (who have not yet committed to backstop the Bondholders New Financings) to participate in the financial restructuring, the Company announces today the opening of a new syndication period during which these Bondholders will be able to subscribe, pro rata only to their Bonds' holding at the Record Date, to the Bondholders New Financings.
All the Bondholders at the Record Date that have not already participated in the backstop but wish to subscribe their pro rata share of the Bondholders New Financings are therefore invited to formalize their commitment, by July 22, 2024 6:00 p.m. CET by completing the following form: https://forms.kroll.com/orbeon/fr/is/atos-bh-form/new?form-version=1.
The Company reminds that the subscription of these New Financings is opened only to the Bondholders as at the Record Date.
Bondholders at the Record Date willing to participate, for their pro rata share, in the new bond issue are required to participate also in the €75 million backstop in cash of the Rights Issue for an equivalent proportion.
The terms and conditions of the New Financings are set out in the restructuring term sheet published on the Company's website and in the Lock-Up Agreement. Further information concerning the New Financings is available to Bondholders at the Record Date via the following website: https://deals.is.kroll.com/atos.
As announced in its press release of June 30, 2024, the members of the group of bondholders and the members of the group of banks, together holding more than 50% of the unsecured debt of the Company, have undertaken to subscribe, in accordance with the stipulations of the Agreement on the Restructuring Terms and the Lock-Up Agreement, each as far as they are concerned, to several successive capital increases, if necessary in the form of a backstop, enabling a significant reduction in the Company's net financial debt in parallel with the contributions of new secured financings.
As a reminder, these operations include:
5 If the shareholders vote against the proposed accelerated safeguard plan. If the existing shareholders subscribe to the Potential Capital Increase within the priority period (délai de priorité), under the conditions of Article L.22- 10-51 of the French commercial code, the new shares would be subscribed at the same price as those to be subscribed by the Participating Creditors in the Potential Capital Increase.
6 If the shareholders vote against the proposed accelerated safeguard plan. If the existing shareholders subscribe to the Equitization Capital Increases within the priority period (délai de priorité), under the conditions of Article L.22-10-51 of the French commercial code, the new shares would be subscribed at the same price as those to be subscribed by the Participating Creditors or the Non-Participating Creditors (as the case may be) in the Equitization Capital Increases.
The Company reminds that the implementation of the Agreement on the Restructuring Terms will result in massive dilution for Atos existing shareholders, who should, in the absence of participation in the proposed Financial Restructuring Capital Increases, hold less than 0.1% of the share capital.
| Existing shareholders (for their current shareholding) |
Existing shareholders (for the shares subscribed under the €233 million Rights Issue) |
Financial creditors | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 100% participation in the €233 million Rights Issue8 |
0.05% | 25.83% | 74.12% |
| 0% participation in the €233 million Rights Issue |
0.06% | - | 99.94% |
8 On a fully diluted basis (including the full exercise of the option to inject EUR 75m in cash as part of the Potential Capital Increase).
The terms and conditions of the Lock-Up Agreement include, in particular, an undertaking by the signatories to support and carry out any steps or actions reasonably necessary to implement and complete the financial restructuring in accordance with the Agreement on the Restructuring Terms and the Lock-Up Agreement and, accordingly, to execute the required contractual documentation. Under these terms and conditions, the Atos debt held by the signatories will remain transferable during the period of implementation of the financial restructuring, subject to several conditions including the transferee being committed in the same terms by the Lock-Up Agreement.
Financial creditors holding the Company's unsecured debt, as described in Schedule 1, will have the option of accessing to the Lock-Up Agreement until July 22, 2024 by contacting Kroll, acting as information and calculation agent under the Lock-Up Agreement (the "Agent"), for the attention of Victor Parzyjagla and/or Thomas Choquet, at the following email address [email protected], subject to compliance with the terms and conditions set out in the Lock-Up Agreement.
In consideration for the undertakings given in the Lock-Up Agreement, the members of the group of bondholders, the members of the group of banks and any other Non-Secured Financial Creditors (as defined in Schedule 1) who have signed or acceded to the Lock-Up Agreement before July 19, 2024 6:00 p.m. CET and unconditionally accepted its terms and conditions will receive, under the conditions described in the Lock-Up Agreement, an early accession fee of 50 basis points calculated on the nominal value of the relevant amounts of the unsecured debt they hold (the "Early Accession Fee").
Non-Secured Financial Creditors who have not signed or acceded to the Lock-Up Agreement prior to July 19, 2024 6:00 p.m. CET but who will sign or accede to it by the Cut-Off Date (as defined below) and unconditionally accept its terms and conditions, will receive an Accession Fee of 25 basis points calculated on the nominal value of the relevant amounts of the unsecured debt they hold (the "Accession Fee").
The Early Accession Fee and the Accession Fee will be paid in cash by the Company on or around the date of completion of all the financial restructuring operations.
The deadline for accessing to the Lock-Up Agreement is July 22, 2024, 6:00 p.m. (CET) (the "Cut-Off Date").
The procedures for access to information relating to the transaction for Non-Secured Financial Creditors wishing to accede to the Lock-up Agreement are described in Schedule 2.
Upon closing of the financial restructuring, it is specified that the banks and the bondholders of the Company do not intend to act in concert together and that consequently, the Company will remain not controlled9 . The Company will continue to refer to the Corporate Governance Code of Listed Corporations (Code Afep-Medef), as amended from time to time.
The Board of directors will remain composed by a majority of independent directors, and certain creditors will have the right to propose the appointment of members and/or observers (censeurs) of the Board of directors following the completion of the financial restructuring.
The implementation of the financial restructuring remains subject to the fulfilment of several conditions precedent, including in particular:
The entire €450 million of initial interim financing is accessible by the Company
As announced on July 5, 2024, the syndication process for the incremental interim financing program of €350 million, to be available from the end of July, has already been completed. This program remains subject to the entry into a dedicated accelerated proceedings.
9 As defined by Art. L.233-3 of the French Commercial Code
10 Ongoing analysis by the parties of the need to obtain any potential regulatory approvals required implement the contemplated transactions.
The net proceeds from the potential disposals of Worldgrid and of the French Sovereign activities of Atos' BDS business will be used to repay the reinstated debt if the forecasted cash balance of the Company as at December 31, 2026 is at least €1.1 billion. Otherwise, the Company will be entitled to retain part of those proceeds to maintain a cash balance of €1.1 billion as at December 31, 2026.
The Company intends to pursue its discussions with Non-Secured Financial Creditors who have not yet signed or acceded to the Lock-Up Agreement in order to obtain their accession to it by July 22, 2024.
As previously announced, the Company is targeting the opening of an accelerated safeguard proceedings during the week of July 22, with the purpose of implementing and obtaining a Court approval on the financial restructuring plan.
The financial restructuring operations will then be implemented during the second half of 2024 with a view to effective completion by the end of 2024 or during the first quarter of 2025.
The Company will inform the market in due course of the next steps of its financial restructuring.
*
Atos SE confirms that information that could be qualified as inside information within the meaning of Regulation No. 596/2014 of 16 April 2014 on market abuse and that may have been given on a confidential basis to its financial creditors has been published to the market, either in the past or in the context of this press release, with the aim of reestablishing equal access to information relating to the Atos Group between the investors.
***
All the holders of the following notes (the "Bondholders"):
All the lenders under the following credit facilities (the "Banks"):
(together, the Banks and the Bondholders, the "Non-Secured Financial Creditors")
In order to access the documents made available on the transaction website: (https://deals.is.kroll.com/atos), Bondholders (as this term is defined in Schedule 1 of this press release) (together, the "Debt Instruments", identified as such in Schedule 1 of this press release) will need to provide a satisfactory evidence of their holding of the Debt Instruments on the basis of a certificate or other statement delivered by their custodian or a prime broker acting as Direct Participant (as defined below), which is not older than 2 days at the time they request access to the transaction website to the Agent by email to ([email protected]). The Agent shall have absolute discretion as to whether creditors holding Debt Instruments are permitted access to the transaction website.
For creditors who are lenders, and not creditors holding Debt Instruments, only lenders demonstrating their capacity to the Company or to the Agent (for example, if they are registered as lenders of records on the register maintained by the Company or the relevant agents on their behalf, will be given access to the transaction website.
For Debt Instruments held through Euroclear or Clearstream, in accordance with their usual procedures, Euroclear and Clearstream will initially distribute the information related to the Lock-Up Agreement to the direct participants of Euroclear or Clearstream ("EC/CS Direct Participants" and, together with indirect participants of Euroclear or Clearstream "EC/CS Participants"). Each relevant EC/CS Direct Participant, after receiving the information related to the Lock-Up Agreement, will contact each creditor holding Debt Instruments, directly or through other EC/CS Participants, with regards to such information. All creditors holding Debt Instruments should comply with the requirements of Euroclear or Clearstream, as applicable, and deliver electronic instructions by the Cut-off date to receive the lock-up fee due to them.
By submitting or arranging for the submission of electronic instructions in respect of the Debt Instruments, the holder of these Debt Instruments hereby authorizes Euroclear or Clearstream to block such Debt Instruments and maintain such Debt Instruments blocked from the date of the relevant electronic instruction (inclusive) until the Cut-Off Date (as defined in the press release) (inclusive).
For Debt Instruments held through Euroclear France, Euroclear France will distribute the information related to the Lock-Up Agreement to direct participants of Euroclear France (the "Euroclear France Direct Participants" and, together with indirect participants of Euroclear France, the "Euroclear France Participants"), who will then send, directly or through other Euroclear France Participants, such information to the relevant holders of Debt Instruments.
Each holder of Debt Instruments held through Euroclear France outside Euroclear or Clearstream must provide (if the holder is a Euroclear France Direct Participant) or request a Euroclear France Direct Participant to provide, the Euroclear France Direct Participant's evidence of the aggregate amount, in principal or units (as applicable), of the applicable Debt Instruments blocked by a Euroclear France Direct Participant on or before the Cut-Off Date, in the form of a book entry certificate (book entry certificate available from the Agent) from the Euroclear France Direct Participant. Each Euroclear France Direct Participant acting on behalf of several holders of Debt Instruments must also provide, in the form of a spreadsheet attached to the submitted form (spreadsheet available from the Agent), a list of the amounts in principal amount or units of Debt Instruments, the names, addresses, email addresses and telephone numbers of the holders of Debt Instruments.
Accessions of lenders creditors (including in particular bank lenders, or more generally creditors which are not holders of Debt Instruments) to the Lock-Up Agreement will be validated by the Company and the Agent in accordance with the terms of the Lock-Up Agreement as at the Cut-Off Date.
This document contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, including references, concerning the Group's expected growth and profitability in the future which may significantly impact the expected performance indicated in the forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties are linked to factors out of the control of the Company and not precisely estimated, such as market conditions or competitors' behaviors. Any forward-looking statements made in this document are statements about Atos's beliefs and expectations and should be evaluated as such. Forward-looking statements include statements that may relate to Atos's plans, objectives, strategies, goals, future events, future revenues or synergies, or performance, and other information that is not historical information. Actual events or results may differ from those described in this document due to a number of risks and uncertainties that are described within the 2023 Universal Registration Document filed with the Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF) on May 24, 2024 under the registration number D.24-0429. Atos does not undertake, and specifically disclaims, any obligation or responsibility to update or amend any of the information above except as otherwise required by law.
This document does not contain or constitute an offer of Atos's shares for sale or an invitation or inducement to invest in Atos's shares in France, the United States of America or any other jurisdiction. This document includes information on specific transactions that shall be considered as projects only. In particular, any decision relating to the information or projects mentioned in this document and their terms and conditions will only be made after the ongoing in-depth analysis considering tax, legal, operational, finance, HR and all other relevant aspects have been completed and will be subject to general market conditions and other customary conditions, including governance bodies and shareholders' approval as well as appropriate processes with the relevant employee representative bodies in accordance with applicable laws .
Atos is a global leader in digital transformation with c. 94,000 employees and annual revenue of c. € 11 billion. European number one in cybersecurity, cloud and high-performance computing, the Group provides tailored end-to-end solutions for all industries in 69 countries. A pioneer in decarbonization services and products, Atos is committed to a secure and decarbonized digital for its clients. Atos is a SE (Societas Europaea), and listed on Euronext Paris .
The purpose of Atos is to help design the future of the information space. Its expertise and services support the development of knowledge, education and research in a multicultural approach and contribute to the development of scientific and technological excellence. Across the world, the Group enables its customers and employees, and members of societies at large to live, work and develop sustainably, in a safe and secure information space .
Investor relations: David Pierre-Kahn | [email protected] | +33 6 28 51 45 96
Individual shareholders: 0805 65 00 75
Press contact: [email protected]
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