Genuit Group: Leeds firm loses £600,000 from Middle East social engineering fraud
A Leeds-headquartered firm has lost £600,000 as a result of a cyber attack by online fraudsters on its Middle East operations, the company has revealed.
Genuit, which provides sustainable water, climate and ventilation products to building projects to help mitigate the effects of climate change and meet sustainability rules, has published interim results for the first six months of the year which revealed the incident required an insurance claim.
The company’s announcement said: “During the period, a social engineering fraud targeted our Middle East operation during a time of uncertainty amidst the regional conflict. A financial loss of £0.6m was incurred as a result, primarily being the excess on the group's crime insurance policy.”
The UK Government describes social engineering as involving “manipulating victims into handing over credentials or security information, rather than breaking into systems directly”.
It said of the general technique: “Criminals impersonate trusted organisations, such as banks, government bodies or well‑known companies, using emails, texts, phone calls or fake websites to create urgency or fear.
“Victims are persuaded to click links, download attachments, or enter credentials, often believing they are protecting their account or resolving a legitimate issue. Once credentials are stolen, criminals can gain unauthorised access to accounts, enabling unauthorised fraud such as making payments, changing contact details, or taking over accounts entirely, often without the victim realising until losses have occurred.
“These techniques are often used on their own or in combination, allowing criminals to exploit trust across platforms and carry out unauthorised transactions.”
Genuit’s results also revealed its profits have fallen despite increases in revenue following “cost inflation driven by the Middle East conflict”.
Revenue rose 3.4 per cent to £307.8m in the first six months of the year but underlying operating profit before tax was down 1.6 per cent to £43.9m.
Reported operating profit dropped by more than 30 per cent to £26.2m “due to lower underlying profit generation and exceptional items related to business transformation and simplification, which will drive medium-term growth and profit expansion”.
CEO Joe Vorih said: "Genuit took decisive and responsible action in the first half of the year in the face of challenging market conditions.
"We worked with customers to implement price increases in response to cost inflation driven by the Middle East conflict and accelerated the simplification of the business and controlled costs in response to lower market volumes.
"We have successfully integrated the two acquisitions made in 2025, with both performing as anticipated and commercial synergies from Monodraught ahead of our expectations.
"While we expect these challenging market conditions to persist through the rest of the year, margins will benefit from the pricing action taken in the first half, continued cost discipline and the ongoing deployment of the Genuit Business System. Our expectations for the full year remain unchanged.
"Looking ahead, Genuit remains well placed in markets with regulatory and sustainability-related growth drivers.
"Structural tailwinds including the Future Homes Standard, Warm Homes Plan, social housing policies and the AMP8 water spending cycle will increasingly create further opportunities from next year.
"In addition, simplification initiatives already announced will generate over £4m of operating profit benefit in 2027."