Business
Has M&S fully recovered from the impact of its cyber-attack?
Marks & Spencer will shed light on its recovery after a major cyber-attack last year that dented sales growth and weighed on profitability.
The retailer will update shareholders on Wednesday May 20 on its recent progress and how consumers are faring amid a backdrop of global concerns about inflationary pressures.
The results update comes just over a year since it was targeted by hackers.
M&S was forced to stop all online sales for about six weeks, and it had empty shelves because of disruption to its logistics systems, after it was hit around the Easter weekend.
The London-listed firm said late last year that the incident would hit its annual profits by about £136 million, predicting that about £34 million of this would come in the final six months of its financial year.
It previously indicated it hoped operations in its fashion, home and beauty business would return to normal by March.
In a festive update in January, M&S had said prolonged impact on its stock data and management systems had affected sales ahead of the key Christmas period.
Bosses will confirm next week whether it has fully moved past the impact of the attack and how it has affected the group’s finances over the year to March 28.
M&S is expected to reveal a pre-tax profit of £654 million for the year, which would represent a 25% drop from £875.5 million a year earlier.
Analysts have said they expect profit to rebound for the current year, predicting that they will jump beyond pre-cyber attack levels.
Experts at Barclays said they expected a profit of about £920 million for the new financial year but said “the main concerns are inflation, soft fashion data, and political uncertainty”.
Earlier this week, shares in the company drifted to their lowest level for about a year amid concerns that consumer confidence will be hit by political instability and rising inflation.
AJ Bell’s Dan Coatsworth said: “Investors will be hoping M&S can draw a line under last year’s cyber-attack and provide a confident outlook, reaffirming the retailer’s turnaround in fashion, home and beauty.
“A material slowdown in the UK clothing market in the March quarter has not been helpful which is reflected in the shares recently plumbing new 12-month lows.”
New Delhi: Strengthening its International feed from Punjab, Air India has started a twice-daily service between Delhi and Ludhiana (Halwara) from Friday. The airline expects a very strong connecting traffic from this flight at its Delhi hub to feed its widebodies operating to rest of the world from IGIA. Ditto on the way back. Meanwhile, AI also got its second line fit Boeing 787-9 that boasts of passenger friendly amenities.“Air India (Friday) commenced operations to Ludhiana (Halwara), becoming the first airline to operate commercial services to the newly operational airport, connecting Ludhiana to Delhi and beyond to destinations around the world…. The new flights to and from Ludhiana are timed to offer seamless onward connectivity via Delhi to Air India’s international network, including to destinations such as London, Paris, Milan, Rome, and Birmingham, enabling guests to travel seamlessly using a single ticket and unified baggage allowance, with through check-in of baggage. Air India guests will also enjoy the convenience of same-terminal transfers at Delhi airport to connect between their domestic and international flights,” AI said in a statement.
India’s foreign exchange reserves jumped by $6.295 billion to $696.988 billion during the week ended May 8, helped largely by a sharp rise in gold reserves, PTI reported citing Reserve Bank data released on Friday.The overall forex kitty had declined by $7.794 billion to $690.693 billion in the previous reporting week.India’s reserves had touched an all-time high of $728.494 billion in the week ended February 27 before coming under pressure following the onset of the Middle East conflict, which triggered sustained RBI interventions in the forex market to support the rupee.According to RBI data, foreign currency assets (FCAs), the largest component of the reserves, increased by $562 million to $552.387 billion during the reporting week.Expressed in dollar terms, FCAs include the impact of appreciation or depreciation of non-US currencies such as the euro, pound and yen held in the reserves.Gold reserves recorded the sharpest increase, rising by $5.637 billion to $120.853 billion during the week.The value of Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) increased by $84 million to $18.873 billion, while India’s reserve position with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) rose by $12 million to $4.875 billion, according to the RBI data.
“Overall, UK politics is a mess, there are already signs that foreign buyers are ditching the gilt market. If there is a major rout in the pound and/or gilts in the coming days, prospective candidates may need to assess whether now was a wise time to make a move against the PM,” she said.
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