Reckitt Benckiser quantifies cyber attack

Reckitt Benckiser (RB.) said the recent cyber attack – assumed to be the so-called NotPetya ransomware – would reduce like-for-like second quarter revenue by around 2 per cent, effectively reducing top-line growth for FY2017 by around £98.9m. The group believes the problem has now been “materially contained”, although some factories are not yet back at full tilt. Management stated that because the attack disrupted its ability to manufacture and distribute certain products it has not been able to ship and invoice some orders before the end of the quarter, although some revenue lost should be retrieved in the third quarter.

The attack may have soured the mood at the consumer goods giant, particularly as it came on the back of the marquee deal to acquire baby milk group Mead Johnson. But Reckitt isn’t suffering in isolation; fellow FTSE 100 constituent WPP (WPP) and Danish shipping leviathan AP Moller-Maersk were also subject to attacks, while US food group Mondelez said the problem would shave around three percentage points from its second-quarter sales growth.

UK corporations have been hit by a 52 per cent increase in cyber attacks during the second quarter of 2017 compared to the first three months of the year, according to latest analysis from internet service provider Beaming. There’s no disguising the challenge this poses to many businesses, but it certainly firms up the investment case for the growing army of cyber-security specialists in the UK and elsewhere.