Morgan Advanced Materials warns on FY profits as cyber attack weighs

Morgan Advanced Materials said it remains "challenging" to estimate precisely the extent of any impact on its interim trading, stating that during January, a number of sites experienced a delay in restarting production and shipping due to the cyber security incident.

"Whilst demand has remained strong during January, we are experiencing production inefficiency during the recovery period which, based on current estimates, could lead to adjusted operating profit for FY2023 being approximately 10% to 15% below our previous expectations," said the company.

Morgan Advanced Materials stated all manufacturing sites were now operational, although it noted that some continued to use manual transaction processes as work continues to restore systems but the FTSE 250-listed group added that a "small number of systems" had proven "irrecoverable".

Exceptional costs associated with the incident were said to potentially amount to approximately £8.0m-12.0m, comprising specialist professional fees, as well as costs associated with recovering a number of systems.

MAM also said revenue growth remained "robust" in the final two months of the year, with revenue expected to be around £1.1bn, representing growth of 16% or 11% at constant currency. Adjusted operating profit was expected to be "slightly above" the top-end of forecasts.

As of 0820 GMT, Morgan Advanced shares were down 6.32% at 296.02p.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com