Atos says its shareholders back safeguard plan

PARIS

Troubled French tech giant Atos has that shareholders and creditors had backed a financial restructuring plan designed to save it from a crushing debt crisis.

Atos, a key partner for the Olympics and other major sporting events which also runs supercomputers for France's nuclear deterrent, has a debt pile of almost 5 billion euros.

The company employs 90,000 people, but in July a commercial court in France opened a process that is a first step towards the implementation of a financial restructuring plan.

"Atos's shareholders and financial creditors, meeting as classes of affected parties, have strongly supported the proposed draft accelerated safeguard plan," said Friday's statement from Atos.

The plan includes 233 million euros in new funding and a debt reduction of around 3 billion euros.

A fresh court hearing is due at the end of next month.

In August, the company announced a 1.9-billion-euro ($2.1 billion) loss for the first half of the year due to a depreciation of assets and the end of contracts in the Americas.