A minority shareholder of the French consulting firm Atoswhich is not going through its best moment, asked last Friday for the resignation of the company’s President, while its shares were trading at 30-year lows amid growing skepticism about its restructuring plan, which includes its division into two independent entities.
According to Reuters, Cyril Charlot, founding partner of the Parisian investment company Sycomore Asset Managementthe main request of the entity «is for the chairman to step down, and for the longest serving board members to be replaced by new board members with strong recognition in the IT industry«.
From Sycomore Asset Management, which has between 0.5% and 1% of Atos shares, they point out that they have tried «interact with management and board to no avail«, so they believe it is time to raise their voice, and they believe that they are not the only ones who are going to do it, because they believe that others are also ready to make their protests heard.
From Atos, apparently, they have not wanted to make many comments about it, but they have indicated that the company’s management, and the members of its board of directors met with Sycomore AM last July, and that they offered the manager of active multiple written responses to your questions.
Likewise, from Atos they have sent the following statement to Reuters in this regard: «Atos attaches great importance to the quality of dialogue with shareholders, which is a priority for the board, its chairman and group management«.
The consultancy’s shares fell 15% last Thursday after Goldman Sachs lowered its rating to the “sell” levelclaiming that its weak financial profile and low visibility foretold a long road to recovery.
In view of this, Chalot pointed out that «Goldman Sachs’ note shows that the company has lost the confidence of markets and investors. If there are no changes in the board, it will be very difficult for the company to regain the confidence of investorsyes».
Its former CEO, Rodolphe Belmer, announced last June that he would leave Atos after Atos presented a plan to split the company into two groups, with the intention of outsourcing and combining its most lucrative assets, including its cybersecurity division, BDS .
The consultancy has since secured financing for its reorganization plan, but investors continue to sell its shares, which until now are down 75%. Charlotte thinks that «what is needed is careful management, the division plan is too ambitious and too complicated to implement. The main problem of the company is that it is poorly managed, and that profit margins and sales growth are below the industry average«.
Atos has replied in writing that the entire group was committed to making its strategic plan a success, which will benefit employees and shareholders, and will result in significant medium-term value for investors.
