Marks & Spencer (M&S) has reported a 99.1% fall in pre-tax profit in its opening half results, after the retailer was hit by a cyber-attack in April.

The company’s profit for the 26-week period to 27 September slipped to just £3.4m, a figure that was up at £391.9m in the H1 period last year.

M&S confirmed that the attack had “substantially” disrupted the business, after shoppers were left unable to buy online from the company for months, while the hack also impacted some stores with shelves at M&S sites left bare in the weeks after it was targeted.

The disruption also meant that M&S reported a basic earnings per share of just 0.3p in H1, a 97.9% drop from 14p per share at the halfway point last year.

In its trading statement, M&S also revealed that it had received £100m in insurance income related to the cyber-attack, which equates to around the amount the incident has cost the company so far. The retailer expects further costs in the coming months, however, having previously forecast as much as a £300m hit from the hack.

M&S chief executive, Stuart Machin, said the first half of the company’s financial year had been an “extraordinary moment in time”.

However, he also stated that the “underlying strength” of the M&S business and” robust financial foundations” gave its the resilience to face into the challenge and deal with it.

“We are now getting back on track,” Machin said. “In the second half, we expect profit to be at least in line with last year. This should give us a springboard into the new financial year and set M&S up for further growth.

“Our plan to reshape M&S for long-term sustainable growth is unchanged, our ambitions are undimmed, and our determination to knuckle down and deliver is stronger than ever.”

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