Reckitt braced for sales dip after crippling cyber attack

CONSUMER goods giant Reckitt Benckiser has said sales will be lower this year after a cyber attack ravaged its systems last month.

Reckitt said the fallout from the Petya cyber attack that spread across Europe had been exacerbated by “challenging” trading conditions as it downgraded its full-year revenue growth target from 3pc to 2pc.

Rakesh Kapoor, the chief executive, said Reckitt was working on securing itself at a “much higher level” after the attack, which halted production, shipping and invoicing at a number of sites. He said around 500 systems, 2,000 servers and 15,000 laptops were affected. Its European sites were the most affected because of the timing of the attack, which meant healthcare took more of a blow than hygiene, which is more spread out globally.

Mr Kapoor said the speed and scale of the attack was “unprecedented”.

The FTSE 100 company’s shares fell 3.3pc to £76.23 yesterday as it posted a 46pc rise in pre-tax profits for the six months to June 30 to £1.02bn, on revenues up 14pc at £5bn, but reported like-for-like sales were down 1pc. It also revealed it has taken a £318m provision over a potential US investigation into the pharmaceuticals business it spun off in 2014.