Atos Shares Soar Following Airbus’ Evidian Bid

A minority stake in Atos' cyber business Evidian was offered by European plane maker Airbus SE in Thursday morning trading, sending Atos shares soaring.

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The price of Atos shares rose 8.8% to EUR12.84 at 0840 GMT.

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The French IT company Evidian said Thursday that Airbus has made an indicative offer in the form of a 29.9% stake in the company, although it is not guaranteed that the deal will be reached. The company said that it would conduct a due diligence process, even though it does not intend to grant any exclusivity rights to Airbus as a result of the deal. The company did not elaborate on the financial details of the deal.

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"If Airbus and Evidian combine their capabilities to create a unique European player in cybersecurity solutions and in the digitalization of defense, public safety, and critical national infrastructure, they will create a unique European actor in managed security services and supercomputing," Atos said.

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An offer from French consulting firm Onepoint and British private equity fund ICG for the possible acquisition of Evidian was rejected by Atos at the end of September based on an enterprise value of 4.2 billion euros ($4.49 billion).

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