GLASGOW’S Weir Group has issued a profit warning after being subjected to an attempted ransomware attack.
In a statement released after the stock market had closed this evening, the Glasgow engineering giant said its third quarter profitability would be impacted by the cybersecurity incident, citing “revenue deferrals on shipment delays and under-recoveries”.
While the company said that capabilities were being “progressively restored”, it expects “operational inefficiencies” to continue into the fourth quarter.
The group noted it was holding talks with regulators and intelligence services over the attack.
Weir has downgraded its profit guidance following the incident, and now expects profits before tax for the full year to be in the region of £230 million to £245m. Analysts had been guiding on profits of about £270m.
Chief executive Jon Stanton said: “The robust action to protect our infrastructure and data has led to significant temporary disruption but our teams have responded magnificently to this challenge and have managed to minimise the impact on our customers. We will continue to focus on the safe restoration of all our systems whilst strengthening our future resilience even further.
“More broadly, the continued strong demand across our markets in Q3, particularly for our more sustainable solutions, reinforces our view that Weir is ideally placed to benefit from a multi-decade growth opportunity, as the mining industry invests in expanding capacity while reducing its environmental impact.
“We remain on track to deliver our recently announced three-year performance goals that will see us increase revenues, expand margins and significantly reduce our environmental footprint.”
Weir brought forward its third quarter trading update this evening. It notes that strong order trends have continued, with a 31 per cent increase in orders from continuing operations.
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