PAI takes Atos stake

Atos Origin, the French IT services giant, has received investment from French buyouts firm PAI, which has taken a 17.9% stake in the €2.7bn valued company.

The future of Atos has been the topic of much debate of late as two hedge fund shareholders have been pushing for a sale. Pardus and Centaurus Capital own a combined 23% equity stake. The involvement of PAI could be a sign that any sale might not be as easy as the hedge funds had originally hoped.

PAI has a long history with Atos, having been a founding investor in the business when it was created in 1997 from the merger between Axime and Sligos. Atos then merged with Origin in 2000. PAI had also tried to buy the whole company in 2007, when the group attracted a great deal of private equity attention, with Eurazeo, Permira and US firm Silverlake Partners also linked.