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Shares in Ince Group PLC fell on Monday after the firm warned of annual profit dropping below market expectations, due to Covid-19 related challenges and a cyberattack at the end of financial 2022.
Shares were down 18% at 19.39 pence each on Monday midday in London.
The London-based legal and professional services firm said revenue for the year ended March 31 amounted to roughly £97 million. This is 3.2% below the £100.2 million generated the year before.
The company blamed the decreased revenue on the resurgence of Covid-19. Further, the pandemic hurt its operations in Hong Kong and China. Lastly, the conflict in Ukraine hit global shipping markets, and noted a cyber attack at the end of the year contributed to the negative outcome.
‘Together with some adverse movements in our overheads, this will mean that reported pretax profit is expected to be short of market expectations,’ Ince said. In financial 2021, Ince recorded a pretax profit of £2.0 million.
In relation to the cyber attack, Ince said it believes that the majority of the costs incurred will be covered by its insurance. It also does not expect the effect on its financial performance to be ‘material’ going forward.
‘The final quarter of [financial 2022] presented a number of challenges,’ Chief Executive Adrian Biles said.
‘The UK's Covid-19 lockdown in December 2021 and January 2022 also had a negative effect on financial performance, as did similar issues in Asia, and on top of this, the group was extremely unfortunate in being victim to a cyber attack in March,’ he added.
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