The last massive cyber attack, suffered by multinationals, hit the finances of Argentine citrus company San Miguel. San Miguel, the main processor and exporter of fresh citrus in the country, which has an operating center in the province of Tucuman, was affected by the hacking that hit the shipping giant Maersk, which acknowledged a failure in their systems.
This situation resulted in merchandise losses (of up to 70 days due to lost containers) and sales cancellations, as acknowledged by San Miguel in a statement sent to the Buenos Aires Stock Exchange. "The Company is currently concluding the process of quantifying the damages," they stated, adding that preliminary estimates indicate that the impact on results would exceed US $15 million.
In short, the company that in July of this year acquired the Peruvian fruit farm Agricola Hoja Redonda, the main producer of tangerines in that country, for US $64 million, said that Maersk's breach in its obligations affected their normal operational and commercial development during the 2017 campaign, causing them considerable damages of various kinds, including loss of merchandise, cancellations of sales, and affecting their reputation.
On Wednesday, the Merval index showed a 1.6% decline that cut a streak of four increases in a row, affected by a rise in the monetary policy rate. The reduction in San Miguel's shares stood out, as they declined by 4.7%. It was followed by the TGN papers (-3.1%); Pampa (-2.9%); and Transener (-2.9%).
In the first quarter of the year, the company presented a total loss of $91 million, which caused the stock price (SAMI) to fall from 118 to 111.90, i.e. -4.42%. Months ago, the citrus company celebrated the opening of the lime market in the United States, a country where it expects to arrive with its products from Argentina, next year (it already ships its products from Uruguay and South Africa).
This year, they also arrived in Mexico with their limes. In total, the company produced some 213,000 tons of processed fruit in 2016, and exported close to 135,000 tons of fresh fruit, a segment in which it grew by 47% compared to the previous year. That year it had sales of US $268 million.
Source: tucumanoticias.com.ar