Loss-making French IT consulting firm Atos reported first-half sales in line
It would burn close to half a billion euros in 2022 as it adopts a transformative turnaround plan to restore investor confidence
First-half sales fell by 0.6% in constant currency terms from a year earlier to 5.56 billion euros ($5.64 billion), in line with a median estimate of 5.52 billion from 10 analysts
The group burnt 555 million euros in the first half and said it expected to burn up to 450 million euros in the full year, thanks to the improvement of cash flow generation in the second-half.
It said now expects its full-year operating margin to be in the lower end of the 3% to 5% range it previously expected
It is also dealing with the consequences of its slower move to cloud computing-related services as compared to some rivals
The difficult period reached its climax in June with the sudden departure of Rodolphe Belmer following a rift with the board over strategy
Dubbed Evidian, these operations combined generated 4.9 billion euros in revenue in 2021, up by 5% from the previous year, and an operating margin of 7.8%.