Atos announced on Monday that it was reshuffling its management team and appointing Paul Saleh as Chief Executive Officer, effective immediately, the fourth in less than two years.

He replaces Yves Bernaert, in place until October 2023, who is "leaving the Group after an intense period of transformation".

Previously CFO, Paul Saleh has been replaced by Jacques-François de Prest in this position.

The new CEO's mission will be to ensure the repayment and refinancing of the Group's financial debts, including the planned acquisition of its BDS (Big data & security) business by Airbus and the sale of its loss-making Tech Foundations division.

Atos, which said earlier this month that negotiations for the sale of Tech Foundations were taking longer than expected, said on Monday that it had not filed an "application for the appointment of an ad hoc trustee or the opening of a conciliation procedure".

Tech Foundations is to be sold to Czech businessman Daniel Kretinsky's EPEI group.

The French newspaper Les Echos reported in its Monday edition that Atos' restructuring plan was encountering difficulties.

On the other hand, the group confirmed that its annual sales and operating margin will meet the targets set for 2023. Its free cash flow should, however, be "slightly below its target of around -100 million euros for the second half of 2023". (Report Sudip Kar-Gupta, written by Gaëlle Sheehan)