By Guillaume du Cheyron, GLAS

GLAS partners with Atos to achieve successful restructuring outcome

The restructuring of Atos, one of Europe’s leading IT services providers, was completed at the end of 2024, following an almost year long process which was covered extensively in the French news.

The wider Atos group had suffered a period of economic hardship, and the business had been working through business transformation exercises since the middle of 2022 to take steps to divest itself of non-core business units.
With the organisation still facing issues, Atos announced its plans to look at financial restructuring offers to stabilise the organisation’s finances.

In order to ensure the restructuring plan came to a successful conclusion and Atos could take the necessary steps to stay in business, they recognised the need to partner with GLAS to support them through the process.

What is the background of the deal?

Atos held talks with several private equity firms and assessed its options for the most viable solution to their economic hardship over the first half of 2024.

The business then agreed to a bailout proposal led by its largest shareholder, OnePoint, but this deal fell through in June 2024, generating significant media coverage and edged the business closer to the possibility of liquidation.

Following this, Atos pursued a tailored made accelerated safeguard plan which was approved by the specialised Commercial Court of Nanterre in October.

What roles did GLAS play?

The GLAS US team acted as Security Agent on a US dollar bridge as part of an interim financing package prior to the restructuring. GLAS were then trusted to act as Note Trustee, Paying Agent, Transfer Agent, Registrar, Facility Agent, Security Agent and Collateral Agent on the restructuring.

The transaction originated in Paris, but leveraged the GLAS network in the UK, Spain and the USA.

The London-based Debt Capital Markets team were brought in to work on the new bond issuances, our New York Transaction Management team worked on the initial USD bridging, and our team in Madrid provided representation services for the notarisation of documents linked to assets in Spain.

What was the outcome?

The completion of the restructuring plan in late 2024 successfully addressed Atos’ financial difficulties. The plan resulted in €2.1Bn of gross debt reduction through the equitisation of €2.9Bn of existing debts and the repayment of €800m interim financings. Atos received €1.6Bn of new money debt and €145m of new money equity, with no debt maturing before 2029, providing resources and flexibility for its mid-term strategy.

The company secured €1.6Bn of new preferred financings, including €800m of new bonds and €800m of new facilities from banks. Additionally, €1.95Bn of existing debts were reinstalled as new secured debt. GLAS played a pivotal role in this landmark transaction, showcasing its expertise in managing high-profile, complex restructurings.