The French government has written to Atos SE inviting it to take over parts of the company that the state considers strategic, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said on Sunday.
Le Maire did not disclose the bid price for the proposed deal, which includes the company’s supercomputer, quantum computing and cyber products operations. The businesses have annual sales of about 900 million euros ($962 million), according to his office.
The French government intends to bring the private companies together into a consortium if the proposal is accepted, Le Maire said. He did not specify which companies, but said that they would all be French.
“The goal is for Atos’ strategic activities to remain under the exclusive control of France,” Le Maire said on LCI television.
Last week Atos said it looking for more money and may need to further reduce its debt. The company previously said it needed to raise about 1.2 billion euros of new money to finance the business until 2025 and cut debt by about half to 2.4 billion euros.
Atos was one of France’s leading technology companies before a series of setbacks, including accounting errors and profit warnings, brought it to the brink of insolvency.
When plans to sell assets to Airbus SE and Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky fell through earlier this year, the French government was forced to step in and provide temporary financing. A court-appointed mediator is currently conducting a conciliation process with creditors and banks.