(Bloomberg) -- Embattled French IT company Atos SE is seeking €600 million ($651 million) in cash and another €600 million in credit lines and loan guarantees to fund the business through 2025, according to a restructuring plan presented to creditors.

Atos is aiming to cut its debt by €2.4 billion by 2026 and wants to extend its remaining debt maturities by five years, the company said in a statement on Tuesday. Bloomberg previously reported it was seeking at least €1 billion in fresh funds and to slash its debt by about half. 

Before a deal is reached, Atos will get a lifeline of €400 million in interim financing from a group of banks and bondholders, with an additional €50 million from the French state. The government in return will get a golden share for Atos’s strategic activities that allows the state to purchase sensitive businesses if it doesn’t approve of the potential owners. 

Atos, once hailed as the rising star of France’s tech industry, is facing a wall of debt — and it’s running out of options for bringing it down. The firm owes about €4.7 billion, of which €3.65 billion is due by the end of next year. Meanwhile, talks to sell parts of its business to Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky’s EPEI and Airbus SE have failed. 

Read More: How French IT Supplier to Nuclear Industry and Olympics Stumbled

The company’s share price has fallen by more than 97% in the past seven years, with a series of supply chain constraints, accounting errors, profit warnings and industry-wide headwinds wiping out nearly €12 billion in market value.

Bonds rallied by a record amount at the prospect of a refinancing deal, with the notes due in 2025 gaining close to 10 cents on the euro to around 34, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

However, some shareholders criticized the plan, which could dilute their holdings. Shares fell 12% to €2.03 at 1:52 p.m. in Paris. 

“A halving of gross debt by the end of 2026 seems to us to be too much,” Udaac, an organization of Atos minority shareholders, said in a statement. “We fear that this reduction will be achieved too significantly by converting debt into shares.”

Existing stakeholders and third-party investors can submit financing proposals for debt or equity by April 26, Atos said. 

The injection of new money will lead to a dilution of the current shareholders if the new funds take the form of equity, Atos Chief Executive Officer Paul Saleh said Tuesday in a call with reporters.

The company is seeking to recover a BB credit rating profile by 2026. S&P Global Ratings downgraded its debt this year to B-, six steps into junk territory. All of Atos debt is currently unsecured. Whether or not some creditors get more security will depend on the proposals, Saleh said.

Atos said it is expecting its revenue to fall 1.9% to €9.9 billion in 2024, before returning to growth from 2025.

French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal has taken a personal interest in the fate of Atos, which has close ties with the nation’s military and nuclear industry. Attal said last week that Atos’s strategic activities, which include providing cybersecurity for this summer’s Paris Olympics, must remain under French ownership. The government’s priority is to ensure Atos’s financial stability, he recently told lawmakers at the National Assembly.

The proposal is part of a formal restructuring process known as conciliation with the company’s creditors, under the supervision of a court-appointed mediator. Atos said last month it has sufficient liquidity until it reaches a debt deal and that it hoped to have a comprehensive agreement by July.

Other parties are trying to design alternative rescue plans. Atos’s largest shareholder Onepoint said on Sunday that Paris-based investment firm Butler Industries will join a consortium to help rescue Atos. The group is interested in “protecting and preserving all group assets,” according to a statement. 

Kretinsky is also weighing a renewed takeover offer for parts of Atos, depending on the result of the restructuring and refinancing plan, Bloomberg reported in February.

--With assistance from Giulia Morpurgo.

(Updates with details of golden share in third paragraph.)

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