Thales will not make a bid for a stake in Evidian, the future separate entity of Atos, a spokeswoman for the group told Reuters on Tuesday, amid market speculation of an interest by the defense group in the digital services company.

Last June, Atos announced plans to spin off and combine its coveted Big Data and Security (BDS) division and other assets into a new entity called Evidian.

When asked about the possibility of Thales acquiring a stake in Evidian, the spokeswoman indicated that the Group was not interested, as such an operation would not correspond to Thales' strategy.

Thales "has no intention of diversifying into markets other than those it already serves", the spokeswoman said.

Sources had told Reuters last year that Thales, which also offers cybersecurity services to its customers, was working on a plan to buy Atos' BDS business, before the latter declared that it did not want to sell this division.

Last week, Les Echos reported that Airbus was considering taking a minority stake in Evidian.

In September, Atos rejected an offer from the Onepoint group to buy Evidian for an enterprise value of 4.2 billion euros. (Reported by Mathieu Rosemain, Jean Terzian for the French version, edited by Blandine Hénault)