France's Thales could be tempted by some Atos defence assets, says CFO
PARIS, April 30 (Reuters) -Thales TCFP.PA opened the door on Tuesday to buying a limited part of the strategic assets of troubled French IT group Atos ATOS.PA after the French government floated a rescue package.
The government provisionally offered at the weekend to acquire various strategically important assets including Atos' Advanced Computing, Mission-Critical Systems and Cyber Products, and said it would also seek industrial partners.
Thales, a defence group partially owned by the French state, has repeatedly said it is not interested in Atos' computing assets known as Big Data & Security (BDS) because it does not fit its fast-expanding civil cybersecurity business.
But asked whether the situation had changed following the government's intervention and search for potential partners, Chief Financial Officer Pascal Bouchiat said Thales could look at limited defence-related assets if they became available.
"We are not interested in BDS," Bouchiat told reporters. "It's true that inside BDS, which is essentially a cybersecurity services activity, there is another activity that is much more modest in size which is related to defence and security."
Speaking in a quarterly results media briefing, he added: "If at some point this particular defence and security business, which is a minority of BDS, were on sale, then we would not object to looking at it."
He declined to comment on whether the French government had already approached Thales, in which it owns 26% of the shares and 35% of the voting rights.
Reporting by Tim Hepher;
Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta
Related Assets
Latest News
Disclaimer: The XM Group entities provide execution-only service and access to our Online Trading Facility, permitting a person to view and/or use the content available on or via the website, is not intended to change or expand on this, nor does it change or expand on this. Such access and use are always subject to: (i) Terms and Conditions; (ii) Risk Warnings; and (iii) Full Disclaimer. Such content is therefore provided as no more than general information. Particularly, please be aware that the contents of our Online Trading Facility are neither a solicitation, nor an offer to enter any transactions on the financial markets. Trading on any financial market involves a significant level of risk to your capital.
All material published on our Online Trading Facility is intended for educational/informational purposes only, and does not contain – nor should it be considered as containing – financial, investment tax or trading advice and recommendations; or a record of our trading prices; or an offer of, or solicitation for, a transaction in any financial instruments; or unsolicited financial promotions to you.
Any third-party content, as well as content prepared by XM, such as: opinions, news, research, analyses, prices and other information or links to third-party sites contained on this website are provided on an “as-is” basis, as general market commentary, and do not constitute investment advice. To the extent that any content is construed as investment research, you must note and accept that the content was not intended to and has not been prepared in accordance with legal requirements designed to promote the independence of investment research and as such, it would be considered as marketing communication under the relevant laws and regulations. Please ensure that you have read and understood our Notification on Non-Independent Investment. Research and Risk Warning concerning the foregoing information, which can be accessed here.
