Shareholders eye more details on M&S cyber attack impact
Investors will be hoping that Marks & Spencer can shed light next week on the impact of a damaging cyber attack which has halted all online orders at the retail giant.
The company will unveil its financial performance for the past year in an update to the stock market on Wednesday, May 21.
However, attention will be sharply focused on how the company is coping after weeks of disruption.
It is almost a month since the retailer was first impacted by a major “cyber incident”, reported to be linked to hacking group Scattered Spider.
The company has paused online orders for the past three weeks as a result, while payments and click and collect orders were also impacted.
M&S saw availability in stores also knocked by the disruption, causing some empty shelves as it changed parts of its IT systems, but said this was recovering quickly in an update on Thursday.
Customer personal data, which could have included names, email addresses, postal addresses and dates of birth, was taken by hackers in the attack.
The retailer has not yet divulged the financial cost of the incident, but is believed to have missed out on tens of millions of pounds in sales.
Guidance for M&S year ahead expected
Analysts have said shareholders will be eagerly awaiting the firm’s guidance on profits and revenues for the current year as a result.
Susannah Streeter, head of money and markets at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: “Although the annual numbers won’t show the effect, as they end before the outages of operations occurred, some guidance for the year ahead is expected, and it’s likely to be very cautious indeed.
“With online orders still suspended, the breach is expected to be costing around £4m a day in lost sales.”
She added that fashion sales could be a particular casualty, with the disruption coming amid a spell of warm weather during a key period for spring/summer clothing lines.
Analysts at Barclays have suggested the cyber attack could result in a £200m cost for the 2025/26 financial year but that this is likely to be offset by an insurance payout of around £100m.
The attack knocked the business after a positive period under the leadership of Stuart Machin, with shares striking an almost nine-year-high last month before a recent drop in value.
M&S is expected to report that total group sales increased by around 5 per cent to £13.8bn for the year to March 31, according to sector analysts.
The company is also expected to reveal pre-tax profit of around £840m for the year.
This compares with around £716m a year earlier.
By Henry Saker-Clark, PA Deputy Business Editor