Jon Stanton: robust action

Engineering and mining firm Weir Group said in an after-hours statement it had been the target of a “sophisticated” ransomware attack, forcing it to bring forward its third quarter announcement.

The Glasgow-based company said the attack occurred in the second half of September, causing delayed revenue payments of c.£50m that will cause some slippage of Q4 income into 2022.

The full year operating profit impact of Q4 revenue slippage is expected to be between £10m and £20m, while the impact of overhead under-recoveries is expected to be between £10m and £15m, said the company.

The majority of the impact is expected to be in the Minerals division and t he direct costs of the cyber incident are expected to be up to £5m.  As a result, the group said it now anticipates its full year PBTA will be in the range of £230m to £245m.

“Our forensic investigation of the incident is continuing and so far, there is no evidence that any personal or other sensitive data has been exfiltrated or encrypted,” said the company.

“We are continuing to liaise with regulators and relevant intelligence services.  Weir confirms that neither it, nor anyone associated with Weir, have been in contact with the persons responsible for the cyber-attack.”

Jon Stanton, chief executive, said: “We responded quickly and comprehensively to what was a sophisticated external attack on our business. 

“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.”