By Gianluca Lo Nostro
(Reuters) -Atos unveiled a four-year plan focused on cost cutting and a simpler structure and issued an annual revenue guidance on Wednesday, after the French IT company suspended financial forecasts last year due to its restructuring.
Once seen as a European tech champion with a market value of more than 10 billion euros at its highest, Atos emerged from financial troubles in 2024 thanks to a restructuring agreement with its creditors.
It had piled up 4.8 billion euros of debt in recent years, owing to a botched split project and a string of costly acquisitions.
Atos expects to generate 8.5 billion euros ($9.6 billion) in revenue this year, an 11% drop from 2024, citing voluntary contract reviews and low business traction prior to the completion of its rescue plan.
It also expects its operating margin to rise to 4% in 2025.
The company expects 2028 revenue to come back to pre-restructuring levels of up to 10 billion euros, driven by "disciplined" mergers and acquisitions, with the operating margin improving to 10%.
Atos' shares fell 5.7% to 39.60 euros per share by 0754 GMT, translating to a market value of 747 million euros.
Philippe Salle, Atos' seventh CEO since 2021, is due to outline his plan called "Genesis" at a Capital Markets Day event in Paris later on Wednesday.
Under the new strategy, Atos will simplify its governance, exit several international markets and complete its asset disposals while creating a new business line for data and artificial intelligence.
It also plans to reduce general and administrative costs to about 5% of revenues by 2028 through job cuts,
The group said it would invest 500 million euros in research and development and 100 million euros in start-ups.
Atos builds and owns the supercomputers used for virtual nuclear tests in France.
Negotiations with the French state for a potential acquisition of Atos' advanced computing activities - crucial for national security - are ongoing, the company said.
The sale process for its mission critical systems and cybersecurity products businesses has instead been put on hold.
($1 = 0.8900 euros)
(Reporting by Gianluca Lo Nostro; Editing by Tom Hogue and Milla Nissi-Prussak)