June cyberattack to cost Maersk up to $300 million

A.P. Moller-Maersk A/S said a cyberattack that hit the owner of the world’s biggest container shipping company at the end of June will wipe as much as $300 million off profits in the third quarter.

The announcement was made in connection with second-quarter earnings, which showed Maersk missed analyst estimates after taking a writedown at the tankers unit that’s part of the energy business management has said it wants to get rid of.

In an interview with Bloomberg Television, Chief Executive Officer Soren Skou said the industry outlook was bright, despite the disruptions of cyberattacks and writedowns.

Management at the Danish company sees “very healthy fundamentals” for container shipping, Skou told Bloomberg’s Matt Miller and Guy Johnson.

Frode Morkedal, the managing director of Clarksons Platou Securities, said the report was “slightly on the negative side, but we find solace in their positive market comments,” in a note to clients.

Of the 31 Maersk analysts tracked by Bloomberg, 15 are telling investors to buy the stock, 12 suggest holding on to it, and four say clients are better off selling.

Ebit was $302 million in the second quarter, missing the average estimate of $896 million in a Bloomberg survey of 10 analysts Maersk had a net loss of $269 million, when analysts had expected a profit Revenue was $9.60 billion, in line with estimates The June cyberattack will cut about $200-300 million off Maersk’s results, it said The company kept its outlook for the full year Profit was hurt by a $732-million impairment due to lower asset valuations in Maersk Tankers and “a few commercially challenged” terminals in the APM unit, it said

Maersk was among a number of multinational companies that in June was hit by a cyberattack.

Its IT systems were disabled, preventing the shipping line from taking new orders for several days. Maersk said on Wednesday it kept its outlook despite the costs of the cyberattack, as the container shipping market improves.

“These system shutdowns resulted in significant business interruption during the shutdown period,” Maersk said in the report. The financial impact in the second quarter was “limited,” but “the impact in the third quarter is larger, due to temporary lost revenue in July,” it said. “While the businesses were significantly affected by this cyberattack, no data breach or data loss to third-parties has occurred.”

Aside from the cyberattack, Maersk said the industry outlook was healthy. After a decade dominated by overcapacity, the container industry is now benefiting from higher freight rates as some of the biggest companies swallow up smaller rivals. (Bloomberg)