France's Atos moves Russian services to India and Turkey amid Ukraine war

(Reuters) -Atos is moving services currently delivered from Russia to other countries, including India and Turkey, the French IT consulting group said on Wednesday in light of the conflict in Ukraine.

The feasibility of exiting Russia has required significant planning in terms of implications for business operations and employees based there, the company said in an earnings statement.

Atos stock lost half its market value last year and exited France's CAC 40 index after some accounting errors and a failed attempt to acquire a U.S. group precipitated a loss in investor confidence.

Rodolphe Belmer, who took over the reins from former chief executive officer Elie Girard in January, vowed to start over with a clean slate after the Paris-based firm said it had taken total writedowns of about 2.4 billion euros ($2.56 billion) in the second half of 2021.

Atos' consolidated revenue rose 2.1% on a reported basis to 2.75 billion euros in the first quarter, leading the company to confirm its annual objectives.

"These are encouraging signs that the group is starting to reap the benefits of the energetic turnaround plan engaged since the beginning of the year," Belmer said.

Although Atos expects the first half of the year to be affected by continued decline in classic IT services, combined with personnel cost inflation and supply chain tensions, the firm forecast an uptick in operating margin and revenue growth at constant currency turning positive in the second half.

Belmer also flagged that the group had exceeded its large-scale recruitment target, with 8,234 new gross hires in the quarter, mainly in its digital and big data and security activities.

($1 = 0.9391 euros)

(Reporting by Juliette Portala, editing by Jacqueline Wong and Subhranshu Sahu)