UPDATE 3-Ex French finance minister Breton named Atos CEO

* Ex-French finance minister to be Atos Origin CEO

* Thierry Breton to accelerate transformation plan

* Second shake-up in six months * Shares up as much as 13 pct

(Adds share price, analyst comment)

By Tim Hepher

PARIS, Nov 17 (Reuters) - Former French finance minister Thierry Breton parachuted back to corporate life as chief executive of Atos Origin (ATOS.PA) on Monday, abruptly replacing Philippe Germond in what media hailed as a boardroom coup.

Atos Origin, which designed systems for the Beijing Olympics and specialises in secure online payments, said its board had asked Breton to "accelerate the roll-out of its transformation plan, refocus on key businesses and reinforce its market share".

The company's shares rose as much as 13 percent in early trade, valuing it at around 1.3 billion euros ($1.65 billion).

The Financial Times and French business daily Les Echos reported in early Monday editions that the surprise appointment came in a boardroom manoeuvre carried out on Sunday.

It was the second shake-up in six months at the strife-torn company whose chairman was ousted by two hedge funds in June, a move seen as a breakthrough for shareholder activism in France.

Breton was finance minister under former president Jacques Chirac between 2005-07 and previously ran French companies such as Thomson SA (TMS.PA) and France Telecom (FTE.PA).

Germond will leave Atos Origin, the company said, thanking him for "returning the company back to growth". Appointed in October 2007, Germond had steered Atos through months of bitter disagreements.

He clashed with hedge funds Pardus Capital Management and Centaurus Capital, who built up 23 percent of the capital and called for changes in strategy to speed up recovery from losses.

In May, there were rowdy scenes and a shareholder meeting had to be suspended after a staff shareholder group defected to the funds and Germond blocked a vote to seek legal advice.

The stand-off ended two weeks later when chairman Didier Cherpitel agreed to step down and was replaced by Jean-Philippe Thierry, chairman of French insurer AGF (ALVG.DE).

On Monday, Thierry said Breton's appointment would mark a new direction for Atos and its 50,000 staff in 40 countries.

"He will lead the strategy of the group in order to face and overcome the challenges of the current economic environment and to start a new step in its development," he said in a statement.

"All members of the supervisory board and myself fully trust Thierry Breton to enhance rapidly the value for all shareholders."

Atos Origin shares were 7.9 percent higher at 19.51 euros by 0829 GMT, making them the top performers on France's broad SBF 120 .SBF120 index of 120 leading stocks, which was flat.

"We think the nomination of Thierry Breton as CEO is an upside catalyst and changes the risk/reward profile significantly," Oddo Securities analysts wrote in a note, raising their rating on the stock to "buy" from "add".

RESTRUCTURING

Breton taught at Harvard after leaving politics last year. He has been seen as a candidate for several French corporate jobs and was pipped to the top post at Alcatel Lucent (ALUA.PA) recently by former EADS co-chief executive Philippe Camus.

Germond had long resisted calls for a break-up of Atos Origin but said he would examine merger offers.

Last year Atos Origin ended talks with potential buyers ranging from private equity firms to rivals such as French group Capgemini (CAPP.PA) and instead launched a restructuring plan.

After conducting a strategy review following the row with investors, Atos said on Oct. 31 it would sell 250-500 million euros in non-strategic assets, mostly in Latin America and Asia.

It also shaved its 2008 operating margin target to 5.5 percent from 5.6 percent.

Atos was founded from a merger in 2000, but traces its roots back almost 30 years earlier to a unit of Credit Lyonnais bank.

It returned to a net profit of 63 million euros in 2007 after losing 247.7 million in 2006. It has annual revenue above 5 billion euros. (Editing by Ian Geoghegan and Jon Loades-Carter)