April 21 (Reuters) - Atos, the French tech group that provides IT services to the National Health Service in Britain and to the Olympics, narrowed its revenue forecast on Tuesday after market softness led to an 11% organic decline in the first quarter.
The company now expects its organic revenue to fall between 1% and 5% in 2026. It had previously forecast positive organic growth, but with a negative scenario that guided for a 5% drop.
"The business climate has changed quite a bit since the end of February," Atos CEO Philippe Salle said on an investor call.
The company's shares fell about 6% in early Paris trading following the quarterly update.
Atos, once a European tech champion, re-emerged in 2024 from a painful restructuring that forced it to sell assets and triggered contract losses still weighing on the business. It had a market value of 721 million euros ($849 million) as of Monday, against an all-time high of more than 10 billion euros a decade ago.
Its revenue, excluding the estimated impact of recent asset disposals, was 1.64 billion euros ($1.93 billion) in the first three months of the year. Atos does not report detailed earnings numbers for the first quarter.
In the statement, the company flagged a "softer-than-expected" revenue ramp-up in North America, saying some clients had taken a wait-and-see approach in the uncertain environment.
Eviden, which groups Atos' artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and military businesses, was particularly affected by the war in Iran, Salle said.
"Between a third and a half of the revenue of Vision AI was affected," he said. Vision AI is Eviden's real-time surveillance solution sold to airports and train stations.
($1 = 0.8494 euros)
(Reporting by Gianluca Lo Nostro and Lucie Barbier; Editing by Milla Nissi-Prussak)
