Paris, December 18, 2020 – Jeantet advised Archos, a company developing high value-added solutions across the world (tablets and smartphones, urban mobility, home and IoT and blockchain safety), on the restructuring of Archos’ debt to the European Investment Bank (the “EIB”) of approximatively € 6.7 million (nominal value and interest already due or to be paid at maturity) maturing on June 28, 2021, in accordance with the terms of a settlement agreement entered into between Archos and the EIB on September 28, 2020.
 
In the framework of this transaction, Equitis Gestion, an AMF-accredited management
company, acted as trustee in connection with the implementation of a trust solution (fiducie-gestion) set up by the EIB and Europe Offering to restructure half of the nominal value of Archos' debt to the EIB, i.e. € 3 million, plus accrued and future interest and an additional settlement fee due to the EIB.
 
This fraction of the debt was transferred to the trust constituted to progressively transform such debt into new Archos shares, through the implementation of a process known as "equitization" carried out through the exercise by the trustee, acting on behalf of the trust, of share subscription warrants issued for free by Archos (the "BSAE" or "Equitization" warrants) by way of set-off against the receivable held by the trust on Archos. The BSAE may be exercised by the trustee, acting on behalf of the trust, for a period of 4 years from their issuance and will become automatically null and void once the receivable held by the trust on Archos has been fully repaid.
 
The issuance of the BSAE was coupled with the issuance by Archos of other share subscription warrants (the "BSAK" or "Kicker" warrants) to the benefit of the trust. The BSAK may be exercised for a period of 4 years from their issuance.
 
The € 3 million remaining debt of Archos to the EIB will be repaid over a seven-year period starting in 2022 based on Archos' annual consolidated EBITDA (Group share).
 
This restructuring transaction took place at the same time as the transfer of Archos shares to the Euronext Growth Paris market, effective as of December 11, 2020.
 
The European Investment Bank was advised by Gide (Laetitia Lemercier, Partner, and Farah El-Bsat, Counsel).
 
Equitis Gestion (Stéphan Catoire, Eléonore Delplanque de Mandelot, Marie Rouquette) acted as trustee.
 
Europe Offering (Sébastien Tetard, Maxime Baudry, Wei Peng, Quentin Hatziraptis et Johan N’Dong) was in charge of the assistance in the set-up of the trust.