Kretinsky Teams Up With Attestor in Bid for French IT Firm Atos

Irene García Pérez, Bloomberg News

Daniel Kretinsky Photographer: Joel Saget/Getty Images , Photographer: Joel Saget/AFP/Getty Images

(Bloomberg) -- Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky and credit fund Attestor Ltd. are teaming up again in France, this time to bid for IT services firm Atos SE, according to people familiar with the matter.

London-based Attestor, which specializes in distressed situations and had been buying debt of Atos in recent months, joined Kretinsky’s EPEI in an offer to rescue the struggling French tech giant. The fund and the Czech billionaire previously worked together in the restructuring of French grocer Casino Guichard-Perrachon SA that saw them take control of the company in March.

Their proposal includes a €600 million ($646 million) equity injection that will be fully funded, €500 million of new debt provided by existing creditors and €400 million of old debt that would be elevated for those creditors who participate in the new debt, the people familiar said, asking not to be named discussing private information.

About €4.5 billion of debt would be reinstated at €450 million, with no conversion into equity envisioned at this point, the people added. Creditors would receive a bonus if some assets — such as the sensitive businesses the French government is bidding for, Worldgrid or the digital business— are sold above a certain threshold and after the €800 million of interim financing is repaid, they said.

The offer from Kretinsky and Attestor is one of several presented to Atos this week, as the company looks to raise €1.7 billion in fresh funds and cut €3.5 billion of debt to shore up its finances.

Banks and bondholders filed a joint proposal whereby they would provide about €1.2 billion in new money and convert part of Atos’s debt into equity, La Tribune reported on Saturday. Private equity firm Bain Capital, which had approached the Kretinsky team showing interest for the digital business, has filed its own proposal, as did Atos’s largest shareholder, David Layani’s OnePoint, French newspaper Le Figaro reported on Sunday.

Spokespeople for Kretinsky, Attestor, Atos, Bain, Onepoint and the creditor group declined to comment.