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Vertu Motors PLC on Wednesday warmed that it could face a £5.5 million hit to its earnings from the cyberattack on manufacturer Jaguar Land Rover, as the automotive retailer reported lower profit for the first half of the year. Gateshead, England-based Vertu Motors said pretax profit fell 12% to £19.5 million in the six months to the end of August from £22.1 million a year before. Adjusted pretax profit was down 9.5% to £20.0 million from £22.1 million. Revenue ticked up 1.4% to £2.51 billion from £2.47 billion, while operating expenses increased by 4.3% to £251.2 million from £240.8 million. Vertu declared a 0.90 pence interim dividend, unchanged from the prior year. The company said the UK new car market remains subdued against a ‘very low base’ due to pressure from the zero emission vehicle mandate and the general consumer environment. Vertu said it experienced ‘significant disruption’ at its 10 JLR dealerships following the cyberattack at the carmaker. It expects a one-off hit to adjusted pretax profit for the 2026 financial year of up to £5.5 million, depending on the timing of a full restoration of JLR systems and normal trading. The firm said its September trading result was reduced by £2.0 million due to the JLR disruption. ‘There has been a progressive easing of the disruption in recent days,’ Vertu added on Wednesday. ‘The group holds an insurance policy which includes business interruption coverage for third-party outages and is currently working with its insurance brokers and insurers to assess a claim,’ it said. Excluding the impact of the JLR cyberattack, Vertu said it expects underlying pretax profit for the full year to be in line with market expectations. It said the current consensus is for adjusted pretax profit of £27.2 million, with a range between £26.5 million and £27.5 million. Vertu reported adjusted pretax profit of £29.3 million for financial 2025. September trading profit was ahead of the prior year, excluding the JLR impact, it said. Like-for-like new retail vehicle sales were up 1.8% in September, while used vehicle sale volumes on a like-for-like basis climbed 5.8%. ‘The group has performed well despite continued upheaval in the new car market due to the government’s policy to electrify the UK car parc. We have delivered market share gains in every area as the group trades under the single Vertu brand for the first time. We were particularly pleased to see further growth in our [battery electric vehicle] retail market share,’ said Chief Executive Robert Forrester. ‘It was disappointing for the industry to face major disruption across the JLR network following a cyber-attack on the manufacturer during the key plate-change month of September...Whilst the situation is fluid, it appears to be easing in recent days.’ Shares in Vertu Motors were down 1.3% at 59.11 pence in London on Wednesday morning. Copyright 2025 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
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