Atos in talks with Kretinsky over sale of Tech Foundations business-Le Monde

PARIS (Reuters) – French know-how consultancy Atos is in talks with Czech businessman Daniel Kretinsky concerning the attainable sale of its Tech Foundations enterprise, Le Monde reported on Wednesday.

The discussions are going down whereas Atos is in non-exclusive talks with European aerospace group Airbus, which has supplied to purchase a 29.9% stake in Atos’ quickly to be spun off division Evidian, which teams property akin to its cybersecurity division BDS and supercomputers.

“The administration of Atos is not only speaking to Airbus. In line with our info, the administration can also be speaking with Daniel Kretinsky … who for his half is within the group’s historic enterprise of IT companies Tech Foundations,” the French newspaper stated.

Kretinsky holds a minority stake in Le Monde.

Spokespeople for Kretinsky and Atos declined to remark.

In October, Atos stated it had been approached by a number of gamers curious about shopping for Tech Foundations, which teams actions the corporate defines as approaching maturity, akin to information centres and enterprise course of outsourcing.

Kretinsky, who constructed one in every of Europe’s largest vitality teams by means of greater than a decade of offers, has been diversifying and scouring retail, media and different areas for investments.

Final week, shares in French retailer Fnac Darty rose sharply after a media report stated Kretinsky could be prepared to purchase the 24% stake within the firm held by prime shareholder Ceconomy, the German electronics retailer.

(Reporting by Dominique Vidalon, Matthieu Rosemain; Modifying by Mark Potter)