The new year has gotten off to a bumpy start for fintech group Finablr, whose Travelex unit has been crippled by hackers. The fallout at that foreign exchange division looks manageable. The key question is whether the scandal affects the London-listed group’s prize payments unit.
Finablr’s shareholders have plenty to be worried about. Listed in May last year, the foreign exchange-to-payments technology company’s stock has suffered from its association with top shareholder B.R. Shetty, whose NMC Health has been targeted by short seller Muddy Waters. The more pressing issue is the attack from hackers Sodinokibi, which started on New Year’s Eve and has forced Finablr to serve retail customers with pen and paper.
On Monday Travelex said it was restoring its systems. Assuming they are up and running soon, the fallout should be manageable. Finablr says it has found no evidence that any customer data had been stolen. But if it has, it might face a fine of up to 4% of Travelex’s revenue, or about 32 million pounds using 2018’s figures. The loss of two weeks revenue would be a similar blow. Finablr might also need to invest more in technology to prevent a repeat, but even doubling the 31 million pounds spent on growth capex in the first half of the year would imply a total hit of less than 100 million pounds, around a third of the 270 million pound decline since the hack.
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