PARIS (Reuters) – French IT group Atos said on Thursday it had received an indicative offer from Airbus for Atos’ minority stake of 29.9% in Evidian, adding that its board had decided to continue talks in view of a deal.
“Atos does not intend to grant any exclusivity to Airbus, and no assurances can be made that the parties will successfully negotiate and enter into a definitive set of agreements,” Atos said in a statement.
Last year, Atos had said it planned to split into two publicly listed companies by spinning off its cybersecurity operations along with some other units into a new unit dubbed Evidian. The remaining part would include its IT infrastructure management services, which has been witnessing negative growth.
In January, the company’s shares rallied after first media reports about interest in Evidian.
Airbus had no comment ahead of an analysts’ call on its annual results
The planemaker on Thursday said it slowed the production ramp-up of its best-selling A320neo-family jet and targeted 2023 jet deliveries in line with its original estimate for last year.
(Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta and Tassilo Hummel; Editing by Tom Hogue and Rashmi Aich)
