Latitude shares are back on the ASX, but why are they falling 8% today?

The ASX is welcoming one of its shares back to trading today. Yes, Latitude Group Holdings Ltd (ASX: LFS) shares are back baby.

The financial services company has been absent for a few days now after a cybersecurity incident. But investors are now once again able to buy and sell Latitude shares on the market.

But it hasn’t exactly been a glorious return. Latitude last traded at $1.20 a share back on Wednesday, 15 March. But upon its trading resumption this morning, this company opened at just $1.01 a share. That’s a fall of 16%.

The company is doing considerably better at the time of writing, sitting at $1.11 per share. But that is still down a meaningful 7.88% on where the company closed at last week:

Let’s check the latest.

Latitude shares return to the ASX following cyberattack

As we covered at the time, this suspension was due to a cyberattack that Latitude suffered last week. Back then, the company told investors that approximately 100,000 customers had had their personal identification documents accessed or stolen.

In response, Latitude requested an immediate trading halt, which was extended until today.

This morning, Lattitude told investors (and customers) the following:

We are continuing our forensic review to determine the full extent of the attack on Latitude and the amount of personal information stolen by the attacker.

While to the best of our knowledge no compromised data has left Latitude’s systems since Thursday 16 March 2023, regrettably our review has uncovered further evidence of large-scale information theft affecting customers (past and present) and applicants across Australia and New Zealand.

Our people are working urgently to identify the total number of customers and applicants affected and the type of personal information that has been stolen. We appreciate how frustrating this latest development will be for our customers and we unreservedly apologise.

So it’s almost certain this incident is behind the big falls in the Latitude share price that we’ve seen today. We saw a similar reaction from the markets after the cyber incident involving Medibank Private Ltd (ASX: MPL) last year.

No doubt investors will be hoping that the company can recover from this attack. But we shall have to wait and see what happens.

At the current Latitude share price, this ASX share has a market capitalisation of $1.12 billion.

The post Latitude shares are back on the ASX, but why are they falling 8% today? appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

(function() {
function setButtonColorDefaults(param, property, defaultValue) {
if( !param || !param.includes(‘#’)) {
var button = document.getElementsByClassName(“pitch-snippet”)[0].getElementsByClassName(“pitch-button”)[0];
button.style[property] = defaultValue;
}
}

setButtonColorDefaults(“#0095C8”, ‘background’, ‘#5FA85D’);
setButtonColorDefaults(“#0095C8”, ‘border-color’, ‘#43A24A’);
setButtonColorDefaults(“#fff”, ‘color’, ‘#fff’);
})()

More reading

• 2 beaten-up ASX dividend shares I’d buy for long-term income
• Medibank share price edges lower amid $31 million joint venture news
• 2 leading ASX 200 shares to buy that could keep outperforming in 2023: fund manager
• Another ASX All Ords stock has just been halted amid a ‘malicious’ cyber attack. Here’s the latest
• Here are the 3 most heavily traded ASX 200 shares on Tuesday

Motley Fool contributor Sebastian Bowen has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.

from The Motley Fool Australia https://ift.tt/B6ghVMk