Toulouse
Airbus eyes Atos unit: French software firm Atos is in early talks to sell its cybersecurity and data unit, BDS, to Toulouse-based planemaker Airbus for as much as €1.8bn, say Wout Vergauwen and Irene Garcia Perez on Bloomberg. The deal could help embattled Atos shore up its finances as it faces more than €2bn in debt payments in the next two years, while bolstering defence, security and artificial intelligence capabilities of Airbus, led by Guillaume Faury (pictured). The tie-up, however “looks opportunistic”, says Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Tamlin Bason. The sale of Atos’s “most valuable business” is a “drastic solution” to its debt problems as it weighs selling other assets.
But, with €4.8bn of debt, the €780m Atos “needs a reprieve” from its creditors, says Pierre Briançon on Breakingviews. The company warned that it needs a deal on new financing within the next three months or it will be forced to seek “legal protection”. That ought to persuade even “reticent lenders to listen” to its debt pleas and spare the
