The TalkTalk hack cost it £42 million but its CEO says it has 'bounced back'
The loss of customers is lower than the previous estimate from the internet and telephone provider, which forecast a loss of 250,000 customers. Cleanup costs are in line with forecasts.
TalkTalk published its latest figures as part of its full-year results, released on Thursday.
Thousands of TalkTalk customer details were compromised last October in a cyber attack. Several teenagers were eventually arrested as part of the police investigation.
TalkTalk CEO Dido Harding says in today's update that the company has now "bounced back" from the attack and learned lessons.
She says in the release:
The business bounced back strongly in the final quarter following the cyber attack in October. We recorded our lowest ever churn and stabilised the broadband base, testimony to the speed with which customer sentiment towards TalkTalk has recovered, the success of our greater focus on existing customers, and the growing benefits of our simplification programme. We reported full year results in line with our guidance and have declared a 15% higher dividend for the year.
Despite the attack, TalkTalk managed to grow revenues from £1.79 billion to £1.83 billion. But pre-tax profit fell from £32 million to £14 million as a result of a big jump in exceptional costs due to the hack. Customer numbers fell from 4.1 million to 3.9 million.
TalkTalk shares are up 0.66% after just over 20 minutes of trade in London.