Hedge fund manager Chris Hohn is calling for Airbus to cancel the Atos contract – #Hedge #fund #manager #Chris #Hohn #calling #Airbus #cancel #Atos #contract

LONDON, 20 February (Reuters) – Hedge fund manager Christopher Hohn has written to Airbus ( AIR.PA ) demanding it back out of a deal to buy a minority stake in French IT consulting firm Atos ( ATOS.PA ). – Outside the Evidian section.

In an open letter to the planemaker on Monday, Hohn said Evidian was a “highly leveraged company” and investing in it would “undermine the quality of Airbus’ business.”

The letter states that Hohn, who manages the hedge fund TCI Fund Management, 4 of Airbus billion from the euro (4.3 billion dollars) owns more than 3% of its shares.

The letter was first published by the Financial Times newspaper.

in France based Airbus, to the Atos board to acquire a 29.9% stake in Evidian offer submitted, but will also “undertake a thorough due diligence period and fine-tune the details of its potential agreement with Evidian,” an Airbus spokesman said. , without directly commenting on the criticisms in the letter.

Indicator offer less than the 30% threshold that will automatically trigger a full bid for Evidian.

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“At the current stage, there can be no certainty that the operation will take place,” the spokesperson added.

If successful, the deal would give Airbus some say over Atos’ cybersecurity division BDS and Evidian, which groups its most coveted assets such as supercomputers.

Among its customers France Atos, with its administration and military, has instead been forced to implement a demerger plan after a troubled period marked by a management crisis, heavy losses and a steep share price. Europe will provide much-needed investment from the industry group. swings.

In the letter, Hohn said that if the deal goes through Airbus, Atos must disclose what it will spend to pay off any debt or other liabilities.

Airbus shares were down 2% and Atos shares were down 0.3% in afternoon trade.

($1 = 0.9359 euros)

By Nell Mackenzie reportaddition report Mathieu Rosemain; Edited by Dhara Ranasinghe and Mark Potter

Our standards: Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

2023-02-21 13:35:23
Source – reuters

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