Angered by Atos' underperformance and tumbling market value, minority shareholders led by Sycomore AM and holding 1.86% of Atos' share capital had put forward a resolution to remove Meunier as chairman at the group's annual general meeting.
Shareholders rejected the resolution with 67% of votes.
London-based Meunier, a former managing partner at private equity firm CVC Capital Partners, was key in ironing out the French group's plan to split into two companies. The proposal involves 1.6 billion euros ($1.8 billion) worth of funding to complete a turn-around plan and fold the most coveted cybersecurity assets into a soon-to-be spun-off entity, Eviden.
Meunier confirmed the split will be completed in the second half of this year.
The group, formerly led by European Union industry chief Thierry Breton, has seen its market value plummet by 86% over the last five years after accounting errors and heavy losses under Meunier's watch precipitated the share price fall.
The chances for the resolutions put forward by Sycomore to succeed were slim as influential proxy advisers Glass Lewis and ISS had recommended shareholders reject them.
"Governance instability" at the helm of Atos, marked by the sudden departure of two successive CEOs, laid the ground for Sycomore AM's push to ask for Meunier's removal, the fund had said in an open letter shared with the press.
In response to the criticism, Meunier said he had the full support of the board and his removal would "destabilise the management team and the group".
Atos is home to assets deemed strategic by the French government. The planned Eviden spin-off regroups Atos' most coveted assets such as cybersecurity division BDS and supercomputers, fuelling speculation about interest from other players in the cybersecurity field, such as Thales.
($1 = 0.9161 euros)
(Reporting by Mathieu Rosemain,; additional reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta; Editing by Tassilo Hummel and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
By Mathieu Rosemain
