(Bloomberg) -- Atos SE reported a €1.94 billion ($2.1 billion) loss for the first half of the year, as a hefty impairment charge and weaker customer demand weighed on the embattled French IT company.
Revenue was €2.49 billion in the second quarter, down 2.8% from a year earlier. Its digital transformation business Eviden was down 4.2% in the first half, which the company credited to a market slowdown in the US and “contract scope reductions” in the UK, the company said in a statement on Thursday.
A key supplier to both the French nuclear industry and the Olympic Games, Atos has struggled with debts, accounting errors and industrywide headwinds that have wiped out nearly €13 billion of its market value over the past seven years. The company has been under a formal restructuring process with creditors and banks since February to avoid bankruptcy.
The group’s net debt was €4.2 billion at the end of June, up from €3.9 billion at the end of March. The company said it incurred a non-cash impairment charge of €1.6 billion.
Now that Atos’ refinancing plan is underway, the firm will “focus on the recovery of the trust with customers,” Atos Chief Financial Officer Jacques-François De Prest said in a call with reporters.
The company has increased investment in client projects, including R&D for a supercomputer in Germany and upgrades in America and Asia, De Prest said. This contributed to capital expenditures rising to €278 million in the first half, up €168 million from the prior year, according to the statement.
Last week, Atos appointed its sixth chief executive officer in less than three years, as the group moves ahead with its creditors’ restructuring plan. Chairman Jean-Pierre Mustier took over from Paul Saleh to steer the company through the final stages of the bailout agreement, while remaining chairman of Atos’ board.
Mustier said in the call that new governance, including a fresh CEO, will be picked with creditors once the refinancing is complete.
A French commercial court also opened a restructuring process to help the debt-ridden Atos push through a refinancing plan with its creditors, known as an accelerated safeguard proceeding, the company said last week.
(Updates with additional context and comments from execs)
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