Onepoint confirms its intent to acquire Atos Digital, Big Data and Security businesses (Evidian)

•  Onepoint’s ambition is to build an independent French champion with an international reach, while ensuring technological sovereignty and employment development in France and Europe.

• The proposed transaction is based on long-term financing and an investment plan of approximately one billion euros over four years.

• This project would ultimately create several thousand employments in France and Europe.

• For Atos, the alliance with onepoint would allow it to gain one year on its transformation project and to generate, more rapidly than in the envisaged timeline, sufficient financial resources to support the transformation of its historical activities as well as securing, in the interest of all stakeholders, the continuity of its development.

• Onepoint invites Atos’s Board of Directors to reconsider its position made public on September 29^th by agreeing to engage with onepoint in discussions, as justified by the benefits of this project in the interests of Atos and its stakeholders.

David Layani, onepoint’s founding Chairman, stated, “By joining forces, we are convinced that this proposed combination would create value for Atos, onepoint, all of our talents, as well as for our customers and partners. All the conditions are on the table: attractive price, secured financing, ambitious industrial project aligned with Atos’ strategic plan. Together, we could preserve our values and build a French technology champion with an international reach. With this offer, we would be able to leverage our ability to serve our customers from end-to-end. This business combination would strengthen France’s digital sovereignty by developing the most strategic expertise, particularly in cybersecurity, on French soil. It is also an ambitious project for employment.”

Onepoint, a leader in business and technological transformations for corporations government agencies with 14 locations worldwide, in Europe, North America, North Africa as well as Asia-Pacific, confirms the terms of the letter of intent it submitted to the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Atos on September 27^th, for a merger with the Digital and Big Data and Security businesses, which Atos announced would be spun off to its shareholders in 2023 once combined into an entity called Evidian. Under this proposal, onepoint would acquire said businesses based on a €4.2 billion enterprise value, paid in cash. In order to share the new group’s added value, Atos could retain an equity stake of up to 30% of the combined group following the acquisition. The acquisition would be funded by a rights issue amounting to approximately €2 billion arranged by a leading European asset management firm, and by a €2.2 billion further issue of existing debt notes. In order to complete the transformation investments which, form part of the planned industrial project, the new group would have access to a €500 million long-term credit line. Following this acquisition, the new group would have 60,000-plus employees with a goal to reach 100,000 employees and €10 billion revenues within five years, to become leader in markets such as defence, healthcare, energy, banking and service platforms. Creating value for all onepoint and Evidian clients and talents, the transaction would allow:

• The deployment of €1 billion over four years to fund transformation investments including merging the new group’s subsidiaries.
• Significantly step up foreign growth in North America, Europe, North Africa and Asia-Pacific.

Backed by the strong complementarity of Evidian’s and onepoint’s businesses and areas of expertise, the new group would cover, similarly to onepoint and on a larger scale, all the scopes of major transformations from consulting to business architecture including tech implementation and change management support. It would guarantee all its clients, in a stable and serene environment, a single contact point for all expertise and a capacity to manage large-scale projects end-to-end. Onepoint and Evidian together would have a good geographical fit focusing on key markets like the Cloud, business architecture, big data and cybersecurity. This acquisition would generate considerable sales and industrial synergies, significantly ramp up foreign growth and instil a new dynamic amongst talent. It is perfectly in line with both firms’ strategies by fostering the emergence of a new French independent champion and market leader abroad, while reinforcing France’s and Europe’s tech sovereignty, which is vital in the current economic and geopolitical climate. This transaction is also consistent with the growth track record of onepoint, which rolls out its tried and tested ground-breaking business model combining sustainability, rapid growth and high profit margins. Onepoint would rely on current Evidian and onepoint talents to bring about a unique corporate culture, as it has done following all its past acquisitions, in order to jointly build and ensure the success off the new group, while giving talents better career prospects in France and abroad, and better opportunities to acquire new skills and expertise. Thanks to this transaction that boosts its June 14^th, 2022, plan, Atos could bring forward the plan’s completion by a year so as to focus on restoring the growth of its existing businesses that are known internationally to be world class. As is common practice for similar transactions, onepoint’s proposal is subject to due diligence, notably in respect of assumptions underlying the enterprise value applied in the planned transaction.