The Ince Group PLC (AIM:INCE) saw its shares slump 15% to 20p after it issued a profit warning and revealed it was the victim of a cyber-attack in mid-March.
Disaster recovery procedures were immediately implemented, including taking some systems offline. A team of specialists was appointed immediately to support the restitution of systems and advise on managing the situation. The team ascertained that the attack was on non-client data and Ince’s own internal systems, which have now substantially been restored.
The legal and professional services business had more disappointing news for shareholders as it said its full-year results are unlikely to be published before the end-September deadline.
"Since the announcement of the offer for Arden on 26 October 2021, we have been bound by tight regulatory conditions in terms of communication with our shareholders. For reasons beyond our control, the timetable for the Arden offer slipped considerably as we awaited decisions from regulatory authorities. This resulted in an extremely challenging period for management, which was then exacerbated by Covid-19, global market conditions and a cyber-attack in mid-March.
"The net result is that the board now anticipates that the final trading results for the year to March 2022 will be behind expectations,” said Simon Howard, the group’s chair.