January’s cyber attack cost AKVA £4m

THE cyber attack which hit the AKVA group at the beginning of this year has cost the business more than £4m or NOK 49.7m.

The figure is disclosed in the global aquaculture services company’s 2021 first quarter figures.

The attack took place on 10 January, seriously disrupting a number of AKVA’s systems for a time, mainly connected to cage-based technology. It is believed the attackers were looking to extract a ransom from the company.

The group delivered revenues of NOK 719m (£62m) against NOK 752m (£65m) for the same period last year, a decline of 4%. It is paying a dividend of one krone per share.

AKVA’s EBITDA (less the oneoff cost of the cyber attack) fell from NOK 86m (£7m) in Q1 2020 to NOK 83m this year.

The financial profile remains strong, AKVA said, and the group is fully financed to execute on the organic growth strategy.

Cage-based technology (CBT) revenues in Q1 totalled NOK 590m (£51m) against NOK 657m (£57m) last year, while the EBITDA and EBIT (excluding cyberattack costs) for the segment ended at NOK 69m and NOK 29m respectively.The related EBITDA (and EBIT) margins were 11.7% (12.3%) and 4.9% (5.8%), respectively.The CBT order intake was NOK 569m against NOK 686m in Q1 2020.

Land-based technology (LBT) revenues rose from NOK 79m (£6.8m) to NOK 115m (£10m) while the EBITDA and EBIT (excluding cyber-attack costs) for this sector ended higher at NOK 9m and NOK 7m respectively.The related EBITDA and EBIT margins were 8.2% (3.7%) and 5.9% (-0.1%).The LBT order intake was also up – from NOK 10m to NOK 69m.