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Atos ATO -6.68%decrease; red down pointing triangle has pushed its decision on accepting rival rescue packages to early next week as the debt-laden French IT firm negotiates to improve some terms that it received Monday.

Atos said the move comes as the conciliator of the company’s financial restructuring process has also requested for more time to determine which of the two proposals the company’s financial creditors prefer.

“These discussions are part of the ongoing conciliation process and are in the best interest of the company,” Atos said.

The deadline has been pushed to early in the week beginning June 10.

Atos said that its aim of reaching a financial restructuring agreement by July was unchanged.

On Monday, Atos received two rival restructuring bids from a consortium led by Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky and another which includes David Layani’s Onepoint, a key Atos shareholder.

Both rescue proposals plan to inject much-needed funds into Atos and address the company’s persistently high debt.

The company has previously said that both plans would result in a massive dilution of the existing shareholders.

The carmaker said its current recall campaign affects the Citroen DS 3 and C3 models produced between 2009 and 2019

Stellantis STLA 2.21%increase; green up pointing triangle said more than half a million cars of its DS and Citroen brands equipped with airbags made by Japanese auto-parts supplier Takata have been included in its latest recall campaign.

The European carmaker said late Wednesday that its current recall campaign affects 530,000 vehicles of the DS 3 and C3 models produced between 2009 and 2019 that had a specific Takata airbags for which risk was identified.

Stellantis said no risk was identified for other models with other components.

The news shows how the effects of the Takata airbag crisis, which began last decade and forced car companies to recall millions of vehicles, continue to affect the industry. Takata filed for bankruptcy in 2017 and automakers set aside billions to cover settlements and replacement costs.

A new creative organization will be revealed soon.

Virginie Viard, artistic director of fashion collections at Chanel, has departed the company after five years, according to a statement from Chanel on Wednesday evening.

A new creative organization will be “announced in due course,” said a Chanel spokeswoman.

The 62-year-old Viard, who succeeded Karl Lagerfeld, has been able to “renew the codes of the house while respecting the creative heritage of Chanel,” said the company.

Viard has been with Chanel for 30 years and was a close collaborator of Karl Lagerfeld, who was creative director of Chanel for more than three decades until his death in 2019.

“Chanel would like to thank Virginie Viard for her remarkable contribution to Chanel’s fashion, creativity and vitality,” said a Chanel spokeswoman.

The fall 2024 haute couture collection will be presented as planned on June 25 at the Opéra Garnier in Paris, according to Chanel.

Just a few weeks ago, Chanel gave Viard its vote of confidence after the French luxury house again delivered record revenues in 2023. At that time, Chanel’s global chief executive officer Leena Nair and chief financial officer Philippe Blondiaux said the luxury behemoth plans to maintain both its brand strategy and creative direction unchanged, despite a slowdown in global luxury spending and mixed online reactions to its latest price increases and ready-to-wear collections.

The luxury house reported revenues totaled $19.7 billion last year, up 16 percent at comparable rates, with double-digit growth across all categories. Sales increased in all markets as tourists returned to many locations, while demand from local customers remained sustained.

After succeeding Lagerfeld, Viard had been instrumental to the brand’s success in recent years. Under her watch, Chanel’s rtw business has been multiplied by 2.5 and it grew 23 percent last year alone, Blondiaux reported last month. ”From a consumer perspective and a brand perspective, Virginie has been a massive contributor,” he said.

That praise followed a slew of negative social media comments following Chanel’s resort show in Marseille, which targeted a younger demographic. The show was held on the rooftop of the Cité Radieuse, one of the flagship midcentury housing projects of architect Le Corbusier, on a damp and blustery day.

The display had come amid renewed speculation that Hedi Slimane would take over as creative director of the house — a rumor that first surfaced in 2017 and one that Chanel has consistently denied.

Other names that have been bandied about as possible successors are Pierpaolo Piccioli, former Valentino creative director, and Sarah Burton, former creative director of Alexander McQueen.

Viard’s appointment had marked the first time a female designer had taken the helm of the brand since Gabrielle Chanel herself.

Despite having been at the company for more than 30 years, when she took on the lead creative post, Viard had until that time kept out of the spotlight. Lagerfeld and Viard had such a close working relationship that he once stated, “She is my right arm and my left arm.”

Her own signature punk look includes kohl-rimmed eyes, blunt bangs and all-black outfits. Viard began what would become lengthy design experience as an intern at Chanel in 1987, after being recommended to the brand by the chamberlain to Prince Rainier of Monaco. She was quickly put in charge of the house’s embroidery. Developing a close professional relationship with Lagerfeld, Viard left Chanel for Chloé when the designer — who previously designed for Chloé from 1963 to 1983 — returned to the label for the second time in 1992. Viard then left Chloé with Lagerfeld in 1997, returning to Chanel as the coordinator of haute couture. In 2000, Viard became director of Chanel’s creation studio, where she oversaw the haute couture, rtw and accessories collections. She worked closely with Lagerfeld on all 10 collections that Chanel produces each year.

Born in 1962, the designer hails from Lyon, France, where her grandparents worked as silk manufacturers. Viard studied theater design at the Cours Georges and then became the assistant to costume designer Dominique Borg.

Private equity firm invests €1bn in start-up set to challenge SNCF on intercity routes

Infrastructure fund Antin is backing a new independent high-speed train operator in France, as challengers emerge to the country’s dominant state-backed SNCF amid rising demand for rail travel.

Antin Infrastructure Partners is investing €1bn in Proxima, which launched on Thursday as one of the first start-ups to take advantage of the liberalisation of the country’s rail network.

Proxima, which aims to connect cities across France’s western coast, such as Rennes, Nantes and Bordeaux, with Paris, has signed an initial contract for 12 double-decker trains from French manufacturer Alstom that it will take delivery of in 2027, according to its founders.

France has one of Europe’s most extensive high-speed train networks, alongside Spain, but is one of the last big markets to open up its passenger lines to competition following the liberalisation of Europe’s rail network. The country’s intercity lines have long been monopolised by SNCF services, which have grown increasingly crowded, while ticket prices have risen.

Barriers to entry in the French rail market are high, with steeper levies paid by operators to maintain the lines than in some other European countries. But Proxima is anticipating high demand for its services, which will add more trains to several routes operated by the SNCF.

Proxima is launching at a time when environmental concerns are driving demand for rail travel from both policymakers and consumers. In 2020 Air France stopped flying domestic routes where there were rail or coach alternatives that took less than two and a half hours, as part of measures agreed with the French government.

Meanwhile, changing working habits since the Covid-19 pandemic are also fuelling the need for high-speed commuter connections, according to Rachel Picard, a former SCNF executive who is one of Proxima’s co-founders. 

“There are new lifestyles emerging. You can live in Nantes and work in Paris,” Picard said. 

France’s passenger rail market opened up to private operators after the EU introduced rules to encourage more competition across the bloc’s network, measures that came into effect in 2019.

Italian operator Trenitalia and Spain’s Renfe began to offer their own passenger services in France last year but are more focused on international connections to Milan or Barcelona from the French mainland than journeys within the country. And several companies are now exploring competing services to Eurostar’s monopoly on the cross-channel service between Britain and France.

But Europe’s train market remains costly and technically challenging, not least due to the safety and compatibility authorisations that new services must secure.

Antin’s chair and chief executive Alain Rauscher said Proxima — which may operate under a different brand name — was ordering trains from Alstom, which already supplies SNCF, to help speed up those approvals.

Antin, which was listed on the Paris stock market in 2021, already has investments in rail, including train leasing company Porterbrook in Britain. It will initially fund the Proxima investment through its own funds but is also lining up a pool of banks for financing.

Proxima will add 10mn seats a year to the routes it operates on, in a high-speed rail market in France that used by a record 122mn passengers last year. 

“We’re coming to add a new offering alongside the SNCF, knowing that we have one common adversary — not so much airplanes, but cars,” said Picard.

The added capacity should eventually help ticket prices come down, she added.

“It will . . . bring new breathing space and availability into the market and that will be good for passengers,” Picard said.