JLR updates financial cost of cyber attack as production levels recover - AM

JLR’s Q2 revenue fell 24% to £4.9 billion after its cyber attack, with H1 revenue down 16% to £11.5bn as production disruption hit performance.

The brand said it has made "strong progress" in recovering its operations following the cyber incident.

It said it prioritised "client, retailer and supplier systems" and confirmed that full production has now resumed.

The company posted a pre-tax loss before exceptional items of £485 million, compared with a £398m profit a year ago.

Exceptional costs totalled £238m, including £196m related to the cyber incident and £42m for a voluntary redundancy programme.

EBIT margin fell by 8.6% for the quarter and were down 1.4% for the first half.

The cyber attack, rated by the UK Cyber Monitoring Centre (CMC) as the country’s most financially damaging , forced JLR to shut down global IT systems and suspend vehicle production for around five weeks.

Operations restarted on a phased basis from October 8.

The CMC estimated that the cyber attack on JLR had a UK wide impact, including suppliers of up to £1.9bn.

To support liquidity, JLR secured £3.5bn in additional backstop facilities, including a £1.5bn UK Export Finance-backed loan, and introduced a £500m supplier financing scheme to help suppliers with cash flow during the restart phase.

Chief executive Adrian Mardell said: “The speed of recovery is testament to the resilience and hard work of our colleagues.

"I am extremely grateful to all our people who have shown enormous commitment during this difficult time."

He added that the company is focused on the upcoming Range Rover Electric and new electric Jaguar models, describing them as “unrivalled in performance, design and capability”.

Mardell will retire later this year after a 35-year career with JLR, saying he is “immensely proud” of what the company has achieved.

JLR has revised its full-year EBIT margin guidance to between 0% and 2%, with expected free cash outflow of £2.2 billion to £2.5 billion.

The company said it remains well placed to manage ongoing economic and policy challenges.

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Freelance writer for AM, Tom Seymour has been a specialist B2B journalist covering the automotive sector for over 14 years. He started his freelance career in 2015 and currently writes for a variety of automotive, business and technology publications.

Freelance writer for AM, Tom Seymour has been a specialist B2B journalist covering the automotive sector for over 14 years. He started his freelance career in 2015 and currently writes for a variety of automotive, business and technology publications.