2021: ACCELERATING TRANSFORMATION IN A YEAR OF TRANSITION

2021: ACCELERATING TRANSFORMATION

IN A YEAR OF TRANSITION

I - Full accounting review in North America satisfactorily completed

II - First half 2021 results

• Order entry at € 5,569 million, Book to bill at 103% (Q2 at 109%)
  
  
• Revenue at € 5,424 million
  
  

-1.0% at constant currency (Q2 at 0.0%)
-2.7% organic (Q2 at -1.5%)

• Digital, Cloud, Security & Decarbonization at 52% of revenue (Q2 at 53%)
  
  
• Operating margin at € 302 million, 5.6% of revenue
  
  
• Free cash flow at €-369 million
  
  
• Normalized net income at € 1.48
  
  

III - Strategy: Group repositioning on Digital, Cloud, Security & Decarbonization and first achievements

• German turnaround plan agreed with social partners
  
  
• 3 new bolt-on acquisitions in Digital and Cloud
  
  
• Strategic portfolio review finalized: Decision to look for partners for c. 20% of Group revenue scope
  
  

IV - 2021 adjusted objectives issued on July 12, 2021 and Mid-Term targets confirmed

Paris, July 27, 2021 - Atos, a global leader in digital transformation, today announced its financial results for the first half of 2021.

Elie Girard, CEO, said: "2021 is definitely a year of transition for Atos. Further to the strong Cloud acceleration post-Covid, we have decided to accelerate our transformation and focus significantly more of the Group’s resources around our key business areas: Digital, Cloud, Security & Decarbonization.

The Spring program, aimed at implementing an Industry-led and customer-centric organization, matching the business needs of our customers, has been completed in the first semester. Hiring, training and certification programs in key areas are being strengthened. Classic Infrastructure activities are being optimized across the Group: in Germany we have reached an agreement with our social partners on a turnaround plan associated with the reduction of circa 1,300 of Infrastructure staff. A deep cultural change program called Leap has also been initiated throughout the Company.

This profound and fast transformation also requires a change of scope for the Group. We will continue to intensify our bolt-on acquisition program – 3 more announced today – and we are aiming to augment the Group’s capabilities with mid-size assets that will support our mid-term plan and growth agenda. Equally importantly, we have finalized our strategic portfolio review and decided with the Board of Directors to look for partners for several classic Infrastructure activities representing a total scope of c. 20% of Group revenue. 

Last but not least, the full accounting review we decided to perform in North America has been completed. It did not reveal any material misstatement for the Group consolidated financial statements. Moreover, the statutory auditors have completed their usual limited review of the half-year condensed consolidated financial statements and an unqualified auditor’s report is in process to be issued.

With all those ongoing programs, change is on its way at Atos. I am deeply convinced that the relevance of our portfolio of offerings in the key segments, our customer relationships based on mutual trust, combined with the dedication and passion of our 105,000 employees will allow the Company to achieve its mid-term targets for the benefit of our shareholders and all our stakeholders.”

I - Full accounting review in North America satisfactorily completed

The Company, with the support of external advisors, has completed the full accounting review of the two U.S legal entities on which there was a qualified opinion in the report of the auditors for the 2020 consolidated financial statements. The work performed, which has been reviewed by the auditors as part of their half-year procedures, did not reveal any material misstatement for the Group consolidated financial statements.

Moreover, the Atos Board of Directors in its meeting held on July 27, 2021, has reviewed the Group half-year consolidated financial statements closed at June 30th, 2021. The Statutory Auditors have completed their usual limited review of the half-year condensed consolidated financial statements and an unqualified Auditors’ report is in process to be issued.

The remediation and prevention plan was completed and is being rolled-out. The main actions set-up in the plan covered the following topics: preventive controls, guidelines and documentation, HR review, skilling and organization, and awareness and training. The aim of the plan is remediation in North America and prevention in all regions.

II - H1 2021 results

H1 2021 performance by Industry

Revenue in the first semester of 2021 reached € 5,424 million, -1.0% compared to the first semester of 2020 at constant currency, -2.7% organically. Revenue during the first half was impacted by Cloud acceleration on Legacy Infrastructure business as well as a stronger decrease in Unified Communications & Collaboration, with associated consequences on operating margin, at 5.6% compared to 7.8% in the first half of 2020.

With 18% of the Group revenue, Manufacturing reported a revenue of € 980 million, representing a decrease by -2.6%. In the second quarter, the revenue came back to stability. The Industry performance was penalized by the still challenging situation of the sectors that were heavily impacted by Covid-19, particularly in Central Europe, with significant volume reduction including Siemens in several geographies, and some non-repeatable deals realized in the first semester of 2020. Operating margin reached € 47 million, representing 4.7% of revenue. The margin increased by +340 basis points, underpinned by a comprehensive cost optimization program.

Financial Services & Insurance revenue reached € 1,095 million during the first semester of 2021, representing 20% of the Group revenue. The Industry grew by +5.2%. The growth was mainly driven by the ramp-up of some large contracts signed last year. Operating margin reached € 94 million, representing 8.6% of revenue, a reduction of -310 basis points. The profitability was impacted by some revenue decrease in Banking and Financial Services, but also some new projects required the use of additional specific subcontractor experts to secure delivery.

Public Sector & Defense was the largest Industry of the Group with € 1,190 million, representing 22% of the Group revenue. The Industry revenue decreased by -3.5%, mainly coming from volume reduction in North America. The High Performance Computing (HPC) deals slightly grew, led by a project with an Italian research consortium compensating non-repeatable large HPC deliveries in H1 2020 to a research institution in Germany as well as to Indian authorities. Operating margin reached € 30 million, representing 2.5% of revenue, -690 basis points at constant currency. The profitability was penalized by lower revenue combined with a less favorable business mix.

Telecom, Media & Technology represented 14% of the Group revenue with € 748 million revenue, decreasing by –1.7%. During the second quarter, the Industry grew by +1.8% year-on-year. The contribution of a large contract with a technology company could not totally compensate Unified Communications & Collaboration business decrease. Operating margin reached € 34 million, representing 4.6% of revenue, a decrease of -470 basis points compared to last year at constant currency impacted by lower revenue in North America and Central Europe as well as a less favorable business mix.

Revenue generated by Resources & Services in the first semester of 2021 reached € 778 million, representing 14% of the Group revenue. The Industry revenue decreased by -4.5%, with -2.5% in the second quarter. The Industry performance was penalized by volume reduction and the still challenging situation of Retail, Transportation, & Hospitality sectors. Operating margin reached € 32 million, representing 4.1% of revenue, -110 basis points at constant currency compared to the first semester of 2020. The reduction was mainly due to the revenue decline while cost saving programs allowed to mitigate partly this effect.

Representing 12% of the Group revenue, Healthcare & Life Sciences revenue was € 633 million, increasing by +1.9% at constant currency compared to the first semester of 2020 and with a second quarter roughly stable year on year. The Industry grew in most geographies except North America, where the positive contribution of the ramp-up of some new contracts did not offset volume reduction with some customers. Operating margin was € 65 million, representing 10.3% of revenue and stable compared to last year. The Industry benefitted from a positive volume impact which was even augmented by strong profitability on new projects. This improvement in the project margin allowed the Industry to invest in additional commercial resources.

H1 2021 performance by Regional Business Unit

A majority of the Regions grew in the first semester of this year benefiting from the economic recovery, except North America and Central Europe. In North America, the positive contribution of the new acquisitions and the recent ramp-up of some large contracts in Digital transformation, Cloud and Cybersecurity spaces could not offset volume reduction in Legacy Infrastructure in Public Sector & Defense and project delays from some customers. Central Europe was affected by Cloud migration acceleration impacting Legacy Infrastructure and by a revenue decrease in the classic Unified Communications & Collaboration business; in addition, Manufacturing did not yet totally recover from the Covid impacts and in Public Sector & Defense some large HPC deals realized in 2020 could not be repeated this year.

Operating margin reached € 302 million, representing 5.6% of Group revenue, decreasing by -220 basis points compared to the first semester of 2020 impacted by the revenue decline in activities with a low short-term flexibility.
This affected the Regional Business Units having the most Legacy Infrastructure and to a lesser extent Unified Communications and Collaboration.

Commercial activity

During the first semester of 2021, the Group order entry reached € 5,569 million, representing a book to bill ratio of 103%, with the second quarter at 109%.

Book to Bill ratio was particularly high in Public Sector & Defense at 139% and as Geographies are concerned in Northern Europe at 119% and Growing Markets at 130%.

The main new contracts signed over Q2 included notably a large outsourcing contract in Benelux covering service integration, security, and Cloud services with the Flemish Government (Public Sector & Defense), a large contract in Telecom, Media & technology with EY to provide Next Generation Employee Experience Solution for 300,000+ employees, a large contract in Manufacturing in Central Europe with a large European manufacturer to modernize the supply chain management, an important Cloud and Edge contract in Resources & Services with a major international logistics company, and a digital transformation contract with a major hospital chain in the US to enhance the end-user experience in Healthcare & Life Sciences.

Contract renewals that took place in Q2 included large signatures with notably the Department for Work and Pensions (Health & Life Sciences) in Northern Europe, with a large European manufacturer (Manufacturing) in Central Europe, and with a leading financial services company in Central Europe (Financial Services & Insurance).

In line with the commercial activity, the full backlog at the end of June 2021 amounted to € 23.6 billion, stable compared to end of December 2020, representing 2.1 years of revenue. The full qualified pipeline was € 7.4 billion, representing 7.9 months of revenue, a decrease compared to the beginning of the year due to the evolution of the business. Indeed, there are less large, long cycle outsourcing Infrastructure deals and more short cycle Cloud and Cloud application deals on which Atos has already shown progress.

Operating income and net income

Operating income for the first half of 2021 year was €-118 million, resulting from the following items:

Staff reorganization reached €-79 million stable compared to last year. Reorganization costs related to the adaptation of the workforce mainly in European countries. A specific plan in Germany was agreed with social partners and starts in July this year (see below).

Rationalization and associated costs increased from €-22 million last year to €-42 million this year and primarily resulted from the closure of office premises and data center consolidation, mainly in North America and France.

Integration and acquisition costs reached €-22 million (€-20 million last year) and mainly related to the integration costs of 2020 acquisitions as well as the cost of the associated retention schemes.

In the first half of 2021, amortization of intangible assets recognized through Purchase Price Allocation (PPA) reached €-79 million and was stable compared to last year.

The equity-based compensation expense amounted to €-33 million in the first half of 2021 compared to                €-35 million in the first half of 2020.

In the first half of 2021, other items amounted to a net expense of €-164 million compared to a net gain of € 147 million in the first half of 2020 (a net expense of €-27 million excluding the effect of the Worldline transaction of February 2020), and included the impact from the unprecedented acceleration of the decline of classic Infrastructure business in a context of a much stronger post-Covid demand for Cloud migration. Those exceptional items mainly included write-off of assets of c. €-60 million in North America and Northern Europe, loss provisions for c. €-40 million in North America, unusual impacts of settlements of c. €-30 million mainly in Central Europe and Growing Markets, as well as other long-term employee benefits in Central and Southern Europe.

Net financial expenses amounted to €-3 million for the period (compared to €-1 million for the first half of 2020) and was composed of a net cost of financial debt of €-13 million and net gain of non-operational financial items of € 10 million.

Tax charge reached €-6 million for the first half of the year with a loss before tax of €-121 million corresponding to Effective Tax Rate (ETR) of 18.6% compared to 18.5% for the first half of 2020 (excluding the tax effects of the Worldline transaction that occurred in 2020) and considering the impacts of the revised guidance announced on July 12, 2021 on the recoverability of the deferred tax assets.

The Group reported a net income of €-129 million for the half year ended June 30, 2021, compared to € 329 million in H1 2020. Both basic EPS Group share and diluted EPS Group share were €-1.18 compared to € 3.02 for both in H1 2020.

The normalized net income was € 162 million, representing 3.0% of Group revenue, compared to € 319 million for normalized net income in H1 2020. Both normalized basic EPS Group share and normalized diluted EPS Group share were € 1.48 compared to € 2.93 for both in H1 2020.

Free cash flow

Group free cash flow during the first half of 2021 was €-369 million, compared to €-172 million in the first half of 2020. The variation results mainly from c. €-141 million less Operating Margin before Depreciation and Amortization (OMDA) and from working capital effects mainly € 200 million lower contribution from customers’ cash in advance.

OMDA was € 633 million representing 11.7% of revenue, compared to 13.8% of revenue in June 2020, reflecting the impact on the operating margin.

Capital expenditures totaled €-154 million, representing 2.8% of revenue, 50 bps less than the same period last year, reflecting the actions from the Group to optimize capital expenditures as well as to move to less capital-intensive activities.

The negative contribution from change in working capital was €-394 million (compared to €-407 million in the first half of 2020). The DSO has increased by 8 days (from 46 days at the end of December 2020 to 54 days at the end of June 2021), while the DPO has decreased by 4 days (from 80 days at the end of December 2020 to 76 days at the end of June 2021). The level of trade receivables sold with no recourse to banks with transfer of risks as defined by IFRS 9 has decreased from € 878 million at the end of December 2020 to € 820 million at the end of June 2021.

Cash out related to taxes paid decreased by € 9 million.

Cost of net debt decreased by € 8 million due to the reimbursement in April 2020 of the € 600 million bond issued in July 2015.

Reorganization, rationalization and associated costs, and integration and acquisition costs amounted to €-147 million in the first half of 2021 compared to €-96 million in the same period last year, due to the pay-out of programs started in 2020.

Finally, Other changes amounted to €-66 million compared to €-7 million. They included in particular the cash effect of early retirement programs in France and in Germany, settlements with customers as well as foreign exchange impacts.

Net debt evolution

Net acquisitions/disposals in H1 2021 amounted to €-144 million mainly originated from the acquisitions closed in the first semester.

The impact of share buy-backs was €-57 million compared to €-45 million in the first half of 2020. These share buy-back programs are related to the delivery of shares under long-term incentive plans and aim at avoiding any dilution for the shareholders.

Dividends paid by Atos SE amounted to € 98 million while no dividends were paid in 2020 as a consequence of the Covid-19 economic impact.

Foreign exchange rate fluctuation determined on debt or cash exposure by country represented a decrease in net debt of € 9 million mainly coming from the exchange rates of the US Dollar, Indian Rupee and British Pound against the Euro.

As a result, the Group net debt position as of June 30, 2021 was € 1,129 million, compared to € 467 million as of December 31, 2020. As a reminder, assuming the full conversion of the Optional Exchangeable Bonds, net debt would be € 629 million at June 30, 2021.

Human resources

The total headcount of the Group was 104,808 at the end of June 2021 compared to 104,430 at the end of December 2020. The Group welcomed 1,037 new employees from the acquired companies and 9,391 hired employees, the majority of whom in offshore and nearshore countries. During the first half of the year, 8,665 employees left the Group representing 16.6% attrition rate.

III - Strategy: Group repositioning on Digital, Cloud, Security & Decarbonization and first achievements

German turnaround plan agreed with social partners

The Group signed this month an agreement with social partners in Germany with the objective to turnaround loss making and cash negative areas in Germany on Classic Infrastructure business.

The agreement relates to the restructuring of c. 1,300 staff starting this year until the end of 2023. The cost required is c. € 180 million.

As part of the agreement signed is the freeze of collective salary increases until the end of 2023 for employees in the scope.

As a result, the objective of the plan is a significant improvement of the operating margin in Germany representing at Group level +100bps operating margin impact mid-term.

3 new bolt-on acquisitions in Digital and Cloud

In line with its mid-term plan and transformation, the Group announces today the signature of 3 bolt-on acquisitions in Digital and Cloud:

Nimbix: a US based leading High Performance Computing (HPC) Cloud platform provider. Nimbix offers HPC-as-a-service providing engineers and scientists access to infrastructure and software to build, compute, scale, and roll-out simulation and Artificial Intelligence applications;

IDEAL GRP: a Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) integrator and partner of Siemens Digital Industry Software, based in Finland. IDEAL GRP offers consulting, integration, and maintenance services in Manufacturing and Energy sectors. It will add highly skilled team of approximately 100 experts to Atos. This transaction follows the PLM specialist Processia acquisition in June 2021;

Visual BI: a US based company specialist of Business Intelligence and Analytics in Cloud environment and an Elite Snowflake partner. With this acquisition, Atos will welcome 180 new highly skilled colleagues.

Portfolio review finalized: Decision to look for partners for c. 20% of Group revenue scope

As announced in April, the Group has been conducting a portfolio review of its assets and the Board of Directors in its meeting on July 27, 2021 decided the following strategic moves to accelerate the reprofiling of the Group towards Digital, Cloud, Security & Decarbonization:

• first, partnering on Datacenter hosting and associated activities to enhance customer service while improving the utilization of assets; joining forces in a consolidating market will allow these activities to develop further technical expertise and adjacent offerings while conducting required investments in classic infrastructure assets; 
• second, the transformation of Atos Unified Communications & Collaboration puts us in the position to find the right partner with strong software and / or telecommunications expertise; combining technical and go to market capabilities will bring scale and investment that will allow our clients to accelerate their move to Unified Communications-as-a-Service (UCaaS) and Contact Center-as-a-Service (CCaaS), while benefiting from new differentiated services alongside robust private cloud solutions;
• third, partnering with best-in-class digital and specialized players on sub-critical activities to allow Atos to focus its efforts on its core markets while enhancing the quality of service to customers of those activities.
  
  

In total, the Group decided to move forward fast on those tracks, representing a total scope of c. 20% of Group revenue.

IV - 2021 adjusted objectives and Mid-term targets confirmed

Appendix

Revenue and operating margin at constant scope and exchange rates reconciliation

Scope effects amounted to € 97 million for revenue and € 6 million for operating margin. They are mainly related to:

• the acquisitions closed in 2020 and H1 2021 for €+118 million for the revenue and €+10 million for operating margin; and
• the disposal of some specific Unified Communications & Collaboration activities and Wivertis GmBH in 2020, amounting for a total of €-21 million for revenue and €-4 million for operating margin.

Currency exchange rates effects negatively contributed to revenue for €-150 million and to Operating margin for €-22 million. They mostly came from the depreciation of the American Dollar against the Euro and, to a lesser extent, the depreciation of both the Hong Kong dollar and the Brazilian real against the Euro over the period.

Q2 2021 revenue performance by Industry

Q2 2021 revenue performance by Regional Business Unit

Conference call

The Management of Atos invites you to an international conference call on the Group first half 2021 results, on Wednesday, July 28, 2021 at 08:15 am (CET – Paris).

You can join the webcast of the conference:

• via the following link: https://edge.media-server.com/mmc/p/jvsfrxom
• by telephone with the dial-in, 10 minutes prior the starting time. Please note that if you want to join the webcast by telephone, you must register in advance of the conference using the following link:

http://emea.directeventreg.com/registration/5984116  
Upon registration, you will be provided with Participant Dial In Numbers, a Direct Event Passcode and a unique Registrant ID. Call reminders will also be sent via email the day prior to the event.
During the 10 minutes prior to the beginning of the call, you will need to use the conference access information provided in the email received upon registration.

After the conference, a replay of the webcast will be available on atos.net, in the Investors section.

Forthcoming events

October 21, 2021 (Before Market Opening)        Third quarter 2021 revenue

February 28, 2022 (After Market Close)        Full Year 2021 results
April 27, 2022 (Before Market Opening)        First Quarter 2022 revenue
May 18, 2022                                        Annual General Meeting
July 27, 2022 (Before Market Opening)                First semester 2022 results

Contacts

Investor Relations:                Gilles Arditti                +33 6 11 69 81 74
                                                        gilles.arditti@atos.net

Media:                                Anette Rey                 +33 6 69 79 84 88
                                                        anette.rey@atos.net

About Atos

Atos is a global leader in digital transformation with 105,000 employees and annual revenue of over € 11 billion. European number one in cybersecurity, cloud and high performance computing, the Group provides tailored end-to-end solutions for all industries in 71 countries. A pioneer in decarbonization services and products, Atos is committed to a secure and decarbonized digital for its clients. Atos operates under the brands Atos and Atos|Syntel. Atos is a SE (Societas Europaea), listed on the CAC40 Paris stock index.

The purpose of Atos is to help design the future of the information space. Its expertise and services support the development of knowledge, education and research in a multicultural approach and contribute to the development of scientific and technological excellence. Across the world, the Group enables its customers and employees, and members of societies at large to live, work and develop sustainably, in a safe and secure information space.

Disclaimer

This document contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, including references, concerning the Group's expected growth and profitability in the future which may significantly impact the expected performance indicated in the forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties are linked to factors out of the control of the Company and not precisely estimated, such as market conditions or competitors behaviors. Any forward-looking statements made in this document are statements about Atos’ beliefs and expectations and should be evaluated as such. Forward-looking statements include statements that may relate to Atos’ plans, objectives, strategies, goals, future events, future revenues or synergies, or performance, and other information that is not historical information. Actual events or results may differ from those described in this document due to a number of risks and uncertainties that are described in the 2020 Universal Registration Document filed with the Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF) on April 7, 2021 under the registration number D.21-0269. Atos does not undertake, and specifically disclaims, any obligation or responsibility to update or amend any of the information above except as otherwise required by law. This document does not contain or constitute an offer of Atos’ shares for sale or an invitation or inducement to invest in Atos’ shares in France, the United States of America or any other jurisdiction.

Revenue organic growth is presented at constant scope and exchange rates.

Industries include Manufacturing (Aerospace, Automotive, Chemicals, Consumer Packaged Goods (Food & Beverage), Discrete Manufacturing, Process Industries, Services and Siemens), Financial Services & Insurance (Insurance, Banking & Financial Services, and Business Transformation Services), Public Sector & Defense (Defense, Education, Extraterritorial Organizations, Public Administration, Public Community Services and Major Events), Telecom, Media & Technology (High Tech & Engineering, Media, and Telecom), Resources & Services (Energy, Retail, Transportation & Hospitality, and Utilities) and Healthcare & Life Sciences (Healthcare and Pharmaceutical).

Regional Business Units include North America (USA, Canada, Guatemala and Mexico), Northern Europe (United Kingdom & Ireland, Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Belarus, Finland, Lithuania, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Poland, Russia, and Sweden), Central Europe (Germany, Austria, Bulgaria, Bosnia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, Slovakia, Israel, and Switzerland), Southern Europe (France, Andorra, Spain, Portugal, and Italy) and Growing Markets including Asia-Pacific (Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, and Thailand), South America (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Uruguay, and Peru), Middle East & Africa (Algeria, Benin, Burkina Faso, Egypt, Gabon, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritius, Morocco, Qatar, Senegal, South Africa, Tunisia, Turkey and UAE), Major Events and Global Delivery Centers.

Attachment

• Atos - H1 2021 results vDEF - Intrado