http://www.iomart.com/

The Group's principal activity is providing web based managed hosting services for both the consumer and business.

Originally founded in 1998 as an integrated internet and telecommunications company, the Group has evolved to become one of Europe’s largest providers of managed hosting, colocation, data centre, and business continuity services, serving over 300, 000 customers each day. Having been at the forefront of the UK’s technological revolution for the past decade the Group has developed an enviable reputation for its internet expertise, its service ethic and its product innovation.

The Group holds a unique position within the marketplace. By owning its own data centre and network infrastructure, it is able to deliver the complete set of vertical components in the hosting arena from domain names, virtual web space, security, web marketing, SEO, websites, dedicated servers through to complex managed hosting solutions, colocation space, power, cooling and bandwidth.

As more and more mission critical business applications move on to the web, so organisations need more resilience, security and 24 hour management; the market for managed hosting services and datacentre capacity is expected to grow significantly over the next few years.Described by US Analyst Tier 1 as "currently enjoying the sort of momentum that could soon place it on the list of European heavyweights.", the iomart Group is fast proving to be one of the UK's leading lights in the provision of true cloud computing services.

iomart Group Finance Director wins at FD’s Excellence Awards

Posted on May 10, 2013


iomart among media and technology awards winners

Richard Logan, the Director of Finance for iomart Group plc (AIM:IOM), has picked up one of the UK’s top financial management awards.

Richard was named Smaller Quoted Company Financial Director of Year at the FDs’ Excellence Awards in London last night. The awards, created by Real Business and held in association with the ICAEW and supported by the CBI, are the biggest national programme celebrating excellence in financial management.

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Angus MacSween, CEO of iomart Group plc, said: “Richard has played an important role in iomart Group’s strategy of organic and acquisitive growth which has helped us become one of the UK’s leading cloud computing companies. He is a friend as well as a colleague and I look forward to working with him to bring iomart further success.”

Richard Logan was not the only representative from a media and technology firm to scoop an award. Ian Griffiths, chief financial officer at ITV, picked up the prestigious FTSE 100 FD of the Year while FTSE 250 FD of the Year went to Rick Medlock, CFO of mobile satellite company Inmarsat.

Michael Izza, Chief Executive of ICAEW, said: “An award-winning FD is not just a financial controller; working closely with the CEO they play an integral role in developing and implementing company strategy. A knowledgeable and inspirational FD that demonstrates leadership and influence is as essential to the success of a business as a tenacious and visionary CEO. The FDs’ Excellence Awards are a fantastic way to recognise those FDs that are making a real difference to British businesses.”

iomart Group owns and operates data centres at seven locations across the UK connected via a high speed fibre network and specialises in the delivery of bespoke cloud and managed hosting. This week iomart announced that it has been selected for G-Cloud iii Framework, the latest iteration of G-Cloud, the pre-approved group of Cloud ICT suppliers to the UK Government.

iomart will be a supplier of cloud services under Infrastructure As A Service (IaaS); Platform As A Service (PaaS); and Software As A Service (SaaS) for the CloudStore ICT catalogue which the UK Government has established to encourage the adoption of cloud computing by the public sector.

iomart Group Private Cloud Services shortlisted for International Datacentre & Cloud Awards

Posted on May 16, 2013


iomart shortlisted in Private Cloud Services & Infrastructure category

iomart Group plc (AIM:IOM), is delighted to announce that it has been shortlisted as a finalist for the 6th International Datacentre & Cloud Awards 2013 for its Private Cloud Services & Infrastructure.

The Group was nominated for its Cloudsure platform which offers a fully resilient, secure, scalable and highly available private cloud solution enabling enterprises to scale their own computing, network and storage requirements in real time according to their needs.

Angus MacSween, CEO of iomart Group plc, said: “Speed and co-ordinating the delivery of many types of services is key to private cloud so iomart has developed Cloudsure to allow ease of provisioning and management as well as investing in our own private fibre network to deliver securely and at the highest speeds right up to our customers’ door.”

Ashley Davies, chairman of the Judges Panel for the International Datacentre & Cloud Awards, commented: “This year’s nominations once again demonstrate the very high levels of competency that companies engaged in the datacentre and cloud service sector need to attain.

“We are entering an extraordinary period of radical change in the data centre fabric, in Cloud, modular, DCIM software, and new innovations in cooling and electrical power. This means players must be agile and able to respond to demand for flexibility, IT expertise, new ways in procurement, and achieve vertical market expertise, cost and technical differentiation. The Awards process aims to reflect these trends and identify best in class for each category.”

The 6th International Datacentre & Cloud Awards are organised by international consulting firm Broad Group.

Philip Low, managing director of BroadGroup, added: “In 2013 the Awards will again provide new benchmarks of aspiration for the companies shortlisted and world class recognition for winners,”

The full shortlist is available here. The winners will be announced at the Awards ceremony on 13th June at the prestigious One Whitehall Place in central London.

Posted on May 20, 2013


World’s largest gardening charity picks hybrid hosting

www.rhs.orgiomart Hosting, part of AIM-listed iomart Group plc, has helped the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), the world’s largest gardening charity, to create a secure, resilient and scalable IT infrastructure to meet the online demands of its growing global membership and its staff.

RHS turned to iomart Hosting after deciding its historic central London headquarters, the Royal Horticultural Halls in Vincent Square, Westminster, were no longer suitable to act as the charity’s data centre.

Robert Reilly, Head of IT for the Royal Horticultural Society, says, “We are a registered charity and rely on subscriptions, donations and sponsorship to fund our work, so how we deliver value back is hugely important. It was no longer economical for us to be using Vincent Square for our server hosting so we needed a new and efficient way of operating and managing our IT. iomart Hosting offered the world class, resilient, Enterprise data centre facilities that we needed at a price we could afford.”

iomart Hosting used its expertise in providing highly available, high performance VMware solutions and its Enterprise infrastructure to build a hybrid cloud platform for RHS in its secure London data centre.

The 200 year old RHS has over 400,000 members and is responsible for a series of world-class horticultural shows including the Chelsea Flower Show which celebrates its centenary this week. Its Patron Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will visit the Show today before it opens to the public.

The main RHS website which provides gardening advice, horticultural research and tickets to RHS events is supported by iomart’s Cloudsure platform which allows capacity to be scaled easily and quickly in the event of spikes in traffic. The RHS’s internal systems sit on a large secure, private cloud.

Robert Reilly continues, “There were three specific things we needed to achieve with the move to iomart’ s data centre – UPS, connectivity and a high level of security. We now have a super-fast network that connects all our outlying offices with our headquarters, allows members quick access to our vast archive of horticultural information and images, protects their personal details and keeps us online 24 hours a day.”

Sarah Haran, managing director of iomart hosting, says, “Our technical teams work with organisations to ensure that they have the bespoke mission-critical infrastructure that best supports their needs. We are proud to be helping the RHS deliver a high value hosting platform to its members and supporters.”

Final results Wednesday 29 May

iomart group PLC (IOM:LSE) set a new 52-week high during today's trading session when it reached 249.12. Over this period, the share price is up 79.93%.

Final Results

FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS

· Revenue growth of 29% to £43.1m (2012: £33.5m)

· Adjusted EBITDA1 growth of 48% to £16.5m (2012: £11.2m)

· Adjusted profit before tax growth2 of 56% to £10.7m (2012: £6.9m)

· Adjusted basic earnings per share3 from operations increased by 21% to 8.46p (2012: 6.99p)

· Cashflow from operations increased by 54% to £14.8m (2012: £9.6m)

· Adjusted EBITDA1 margins increased to 38% (2012: 33%)

· Proposed final dividend increased by 56% to 1.40p per share (2012: 0.90p per share)



OPERATIONAL HIGHLIGHTS

· Acquisition of Melbourne Server Hosting Limited for a total consideration of £6.7m

· Acquisition of Skymarket Limited for a maximum consideration of £1.4m

· Acquisition of Internet Engineering Limited for a maximum consideration of £1.4m

· Deployment of resilient UK fibre network across all datacentres

· Commencement of fit out of additional 600 racks of datacentre space

Statutory Equivalents

The above highlights are based on adjusted results. A full reconciliation between adjusted and statutory results is contained within this statement. The statutory equivalents of the above results are as follows:

· Profit before tax growth of 49% to £8.7m (2012: £5.8m)
· Basic earnings per share from operations increased by 11% to 6.91p (2012: 6.22p)

RNS


RNS Number : 7386F

Iomart Group PLC

29 May 2013








29 May 2013

iomart Group plc

("iomart" or the "Group" or the "Company")



Final Results for the Year ended 31 March 2013



iomart (AIM:IOM), the cloud computing company, is pleased to report its consolidated final results for the year ended 31 March 2013.



FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS



· Revenue growth of 29% to £43.1m (2012: £33.5m)



· Adjusted EBITDA1 growth of 48% to £16.5m (2012: £11.2m)



· Adjusted profit before tax growth2 of 56% to £10.7m (2012: £6.9m)



· Adjusted basic earnings per share3 from operations increased by 21% to 8.46p (2012: 6.99p)



· Cashflow from operations increased by 54% to £14.8m (2012: £9.6m)



· Adjusted EBITDA1 margins increased to 38% (2012: 33%)



· Proposed final dividend increased by 56% to 1.40p per share (2012: 0.90p per share)





OPERATIONAL HIGHLIGHTS



· Acquisition of Melbourne Server Hosting Limited for a total consideration of £6.7m



· Acquisition of Skymarket Limited for a maximum consideration of £1.4m



· Acquisition of Internet Engineering Limited for a maximum consideration of £1.4m



· Deployment of resilient UK fibre network across all datacentres



· Commencement of fit out of additional 600 racks of datacentre space



Statutory Equivalents



The above highlights are based on adjusted results. A full reconciliation between adjusted and statutory results is contained within this statement. The statutory equivalents of the above results are as follows:



· Profit before tax growth of 49% to £8.7m (2012: £5.8m)

· Basic earnings per share from operations increased by 11% to 6.91p (2012: 6.22p)











1 Throughout this statement adjusted EBITDA is earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) before share based payment charges and acquisition costs. Throughout this statement acquisition costs are defined as acquisition related costs and non-recurring acquisition integration costs.

2 Throughout this statement adjusted profit before tax is profit before tax, amortisation charges on acquired intangible assets, shared based payment charges, mark to mark adjustments in respect of interest rate swaps and acquisition costs.

3 Throughout this statement adjusted earnings per share is earnings per share before amortisation charges on acquired intangible

assets, shared based payment charges, mark to mark adjustments in respect of interest rate swaps and acquisition costs, including the taxation effect of these.

4 At the start of the financial year some of the customers of Titan Internet Limited, which was acquired in October 2010, were transferred from the Hosting segment to the Easyspace segment. All of the appropriate comparative figures for the previous financial year for both segments have been restated to reflect that transfer. Details of the comparative figures before the effect of the transfer have been included in the Segmental Analysis note.







Angus MacSween, CEO commented,



"This has been another excellent trading period for iomart, delivering substantial growth both organically and through successful acquisitions. Trading since the year end remains encouraging and in line with our expectations. We continue to be well placed to deliver an ever wider range of cloud services and with our growing credibility and strength we expect to be able to penetrate further into the corporate environment. Our experience and skills are growing and we continue to improve and invest in our systems and people to support further significant growth. I look forward once again with confidence to the year ahead."

iomart adjusted earnings up 48%

Canaccord Genuity Buy 244.25 248.75 264.00 272.00 Reiterates

Finncap Buy 244.25 248.75 290.00 290.00 Reiterates

iomart inflated by cloud acquisitions
Wed 29 May 2013




iomart inflated by cloud acquisitions LONDON (SHARECAST) - Cloud computing provider iomart lifted its dividend by more than half as three acquisitions boosted sales and profits.

The highly cash generative company increased revenues 29% to £43.1m, with earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, amortisation and one-off acquisition costs soaring 48% to £16.5m.

The Glasgow-headquartered group proposed a 56% increase in its final and total dividend to 1.4p per share after cashflow from operations swelled by 54% to £14.8m.

But due to acquisition spending the company moved from a net cash position of £2.5m to a small net debt position of £0.4m by the year-end.

During the year iomart acquired and completed the integration of three internet hosting businesses, Melbourne Server Hosting for £6.7m in August, Skymarket for up to £1.4m in July and Internet Engineering for £1.4m in October.

Together the three businesses added £894,000 of pre-tax profits from a combined £3.7m revenue.

Chief Executive Officer Angus MacSween said: “Trading since the year end remains encouraging and in line with our expectations.

“We continue to be well placed to deliver an ever wider range of cloud services and with our growing credibility and strength we expect to be able to penetrate further into the corporate environment.

“Our experience and skills are growing and we continue to improve and invest in our systems and people to support further significant growth. I look forward once again with confidence to the year ahead."

Shares in iomart were down 2.0% at 243.75p at 9.20 on Wednesday.

iomart Group and Geo win Global Telecoms Business Award for private fibre network

Posted on June 5, 2013


Network delivers capacity, speed and connectivity for private cloud

gtbiomart Group plc (AIM:IOM) and dedicated fibre network provider Geo Networks Ltd (Geo) have won the prestigious Global Telecoms Business (GTB) Innovation Award for ‘Fixed Network Infrastructure Innovation.’

The award was presented at a ceremony in London last night for the successful delivery by Geo of a fully private network to match iomart’s private cloud infrastructure.

The project, which included the delivery of a fully dedicated 1,860km fibre optical ring connecting iomart’s eight UK data centres, and the intricate integration of numerous network layers, was completed in less than four months, during the 2012 London Olympic road works embargo.

Angus MacSween, CEO of iomart Group plc, said: “It has been a long-held ambition of iomart to have complete ownership of our customers’ journey with no reliance on third party hosts. With Geo’s help we now have one of the most resilient and secure fibre networks and the network capacity, speed and connectivity to take the cloud right up to our customers’ door.”

The GTB Innovation Awards recognise collaboration between operators and vendors on the most innovative projects from the international telecoms and communications industry.

Chris Smedley, Chief Executive at Geo commented: “As the only company in the UK which leases carrier-grade dedicated fibre, Geo can provide services faster than its competitors. Our business model is different from the traditional telco model, offering our customers greater choice and flexibility.”

The Awards were founded by Global Telecoms Business Magazine, part of Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC group. Editor Alan Burkitt-Gray added: “The industry is seeing a wave of innovation which is making a huge difference — to the companies working in the industry and to all of us in business and as consumers.”

Good 4% rise today on this poor market day. Good news seems to take a few days to filter through on this one.

A buy in this weeks IC - Iomart's forward PE ratio of 24 isn't cheap, but is warranted for a company forecast to produce EPS growth of 40% over the next couple of years.

iomart Group Launches 2013 Sports Campaign

Posted on June 11, 2013


GB Youth Basketball and Football Teams to Benefit from Host Your Kit

iomart Group plc (AIM:IOM) has today launched its annual youth sports initiative Host Your Kit with the new campaign expanded to include basketball as well as football for 2013.

host_your_kitHost Your Kit is a competition to give away free brand new sports kit to youth teams across England, Scotland and Wales, who would otherwise struggle to pay for them. Last year 30 football teams won brand new kits courtesy of the award-winning cloud computing company. This year the competition will include basketball as well.

Phil Worms, Director of Marketing for iomart Group said: “Host Your Kit is about providing much needed sports kit to deserving youth teams during difficult economic times and we’re delighted that it’s going to be bigger and better this summer.

“Host Your Kit also takes our hosting message to an audience not normally associated with computing and IT. The response to last year’s football campaign was phenomenal and we wanted to expand it, so this year we’ve added basketball as it’s a fast growing sport in the cities in which we have a data centre presence. We believe this will provide us with new levels of engagement.”

Host Your Kit’s move into basketball is being supported by Basketball Scotland and GB and Scotland forward centre Kieron Achara helped launch the campaign along with Rangers FC footballer Robbie Crawford.

Kieron, who played for Team GB at the London Olympics, said: “The Olympics fired up huge interest from kids for basketball across the UK so it’s great to see a company like iomart getting involved and helping teams with kit. Getting a great quality kit is often too expensive for young teams but when you pull one on you understand what a big difference it can make to your performance.”

Robbie Crawford of Rangers, added: “It’s great to be involved in a campaign that’s helping young football teams in such a positive way. I hope every young club enters Host Your Kit for the chance to win new kit.”

Host Your Kit is giving away a total of 45 Spalding and adidas kit with the help of sports retailers Gilmour Sports and Greaves Sports. Details of how to enter are at www.hostyourkit.com . You can follow the campaign on Twitter

iomart Group wins Cloud and Storage treble

Posted on June 14, 2013


iomart Triumphs at Data Centre and Cloud Oscars

iomart Group plc (AIM:IOM), has picked up its third major industry award in the space of two weeks after winning the award for Private Cloud Services & Infrastructure at the 6th International Datacentre & Cloud Awards 2013, described as the Oscars of the industry.

The Group won the award for its Cloudsure platform which offers a fully resilient, secure, scalable and highly available private cloud solution enabling enterprises to scale their own computing, network and storage requirements in real time according to their needs.

Angus MacSween, CEO of iomart Group plc, said: “We’re delighted that the industry has recognised the hard work that we have put in over the past year to create not only the infrastructure but the network and connectivity to support the growing demand from business for private and hybrid cloud. Big data is driving the need for flexibility, reliability and ever greater expertise in all aspects of the cloud and we are delighted to be at the forefront of the industry response to that demand.”

Ashley Davis, Managing Director, GTIS, Corporate Centre, UBS Investment Bank and chairman of the Judges Panel said: “The quality of submissions across all categories attests to the value the industry now places on these Awards. They continue to reflect the international character of the datacentre and cloud industry and the demonstrable need for customer focus and innovation to remain in lead position.”

Last week the Group’s cloud services brand iomartcloud collected the award for Archiving and Compliance Product of the Year at the 2013 Storage Awards for its Email Archiving solution.

Better known as the Storries, the Storage Awards are voted for by the readers of Storage Magazine and reward the outstanding products, services and people delivering storage to businesses and organisations.

Bill Strain, director of iomartcloud, said: “Delivering an effective archiving and storage solution across an increasingly disparate IT environment in the era of big data is a massive challenge to system administrators. To ensure we deliver the products our customers need in the way they need to consume them, we are investing in the most secure and resilient storage across our wholly owned and managed network of eight secure data centres.”

iomart’s treble winning fortnight started with its prestigious Global Telecoms Business (GTB) Innovation Award win for ‘Fixed Network Infrastructure Innovation’ for its investment in a private fibre network.

iomart Group plc Wins for Outstanding Business Growth at Digital Technology Awards

Posted on June 21, 2013


iomart rewarded for second year in row

iomart Group plc (AIM:IOM), is delighted to announce that it has picked up the award for Outstanding Performance in Business Growth at the Digital Technology Awards for the second year running.

trophies

The judges described iomart Group as “a fantastic success” and pointed to the 30% increase in turnover and 50% increase in profits over the past 12 months as a sign that iomart had truly transformed its business to become one of the leading providers of bespoke private and hybrid cloud solutions in the UK.

Angus MacSween, CEO of iomart Group plc, said: “We are delighted to be recognised by our peers in Scotland for the second year in a row and are confident that we can continue to grow our operations significantly over the coming years. By investing in our network and infrastructure we have positioned ourselves to take advantage as more and more businesses use cloud services.”

The Digital Technology Awards 2013 are organised by ICT trade organisation for Scotland ScotlandIS which says the industry contributes £4bn in GVA (Gross Value Added) to the Scottish economy and employs some 80,000 people.

Polly Purvis, Executive Director of ScotlandIS, commented: “This year has seen a consistent story across the board of increased activity internationally. Scotland is punching above its weight on the world stage and successfully penetrating international markets including the US and the Middle East.”

iomart Group’s cloud services brand iomartcloud recently concluded a deal with SHI International, one of the top 20 IT vendors in the United States, to deliver cloud backup solutions for its customers.
This entry was posted in Group News and tagged awards, cloud computing, cloud hosting, digital technology awards 2013, iomart Group plc, scotland IS by ioadmin. Bookmark the permalink.

iomart group PLC (IOM:LSE) set a new 52-week high during Thursday's trading session when it reached 254.00. Over this period, the share price is up 76.43%.

MIDAS UPDATE: Shares up by 118% at cloud computing firm iomart we tipped

By Joanne Hart, Financial Mail On Sunday

PUBLISHED: 22:20, 22 June 2013 | UPDATED: 22:20, 22 June 2013




Expansion: Chief executive Angus MacSween has invested heavily in cloud-based services and now the investment is paying off

Glasgow-based iomart is a true Scottish success story. One of Europe’s largest providers of cloud computing services, its profits have soared more than ten-fold since 2010.


We tipped iomart in November 2011 at 115p. Today the shares are 2503⁄4p and brokers believe there is still plenty of room for growth.


Iomart’s expansion reflects growing interest in cloud-based services, which enable companies to have all their internet-related activity managed by someone else rather than do it themselves.


Chief executive Angus MacSween has invested heavily in this area and now the investment is paying off. The company has more than 100,000 clients and the number is growing fast. Most are small firms, which pay £100 or so a year in exchange for email and basic website services.

MacSween is focusing on larger fry, however – bigger companies that use the internet to sell goods and services and need to be sure their sites are running 24 hours a day, seven days a week.


They pay tens of thousands of pounds a year and they include travel firms such as Skyscanner, train operators such as South West Trains and a host of holiday, video and online gaming groups.

At the end of May, iomart unveiled pre-tax profits up 56 per cent to £10.7 million for the year to March 31 and a 56 per cent increase in the dividend to 1.4p.


Brokers expect profits to rise to £13.3 million next year, accompanied by a 14 per cent lift in the dividend to 1.6p. MacSween is confident about growth, aiming to double iomart’s size over the next five years. This sounds ambitious, but its market is growing fast as more companies rely on the internet for trading.


Even now, every minute, 204 million emails are sent and Amazon sells £53,000 of goods online. By the end of the decade, these figures are forecast to increase substantially.


Midas verdict: iomart has made strong progress in recent years and looks set to continue doing so. Investors who bought in 2011 may want to sell 25 per cent of their shares to bank some profit but they should retain most and hope MacSween fulfils his ambition. As a 20 per cent shareholder himself, he is clearly motivated to do well. New investors could also take a punt at current levels.

Minecraft Game Server Host Launches 100th Dedicated Server with RapidSwitch

Posted on June 24, 2013


CreeperHost Introduces New Multiplayer Control Panel

Rapidly expanding Minecraft game server hosting company Creeperhost.net has launched its 100th dedicated server with RapidSwitch, part of cloud company iomart Group plc (AIM:IOM)

Creeperhost had just two servers when it moved to RapidSwitch a year ago after suffering support problems with its previous hosting company. It now has 100 managed dedicated servers housed and supported in RapidSwitch’s Maidenhead data centre as well as an additional three racks in RapidSwitch’s Nottingham data centre.

Lincolnshire-headquartered Creeperhost is looking to further expand its customer base after successfully introducing a control panel which allows customers root access to play multiple games on their own virtual private server by making one single payment. The control panel is a brand new concept in the industry which usually offers gamers only shared server experience.

Paul Taylor, founder and owner of Creeperhost, said: “We moved to RapidSwitch because of poor technical support – at one stage we had two weeks’ downtime with our previous hosting company. The guys at RapidSwitch are fantastic; we’ve not had a single problem. They’re really knowledgeable and go out of their way to help you.”

The RapidSwitch team custom-build powerful dual-processor servers for Creeperhost, providing redundant power supply and large amounts of RAM and storage capacity.

Neil Christie, Commercial Director for RapidSwitch, said: “We provide bespoke hardware platforms and a lowest latency network, allowing game server hosting companies like Creeperhost to offer the maximum online gaming experience to their customers.”

In total Creeperhost now has more than 5,000 game servers hosted in the UK, Europe and the US which are used by over 25,000 gamers with approximately 6,000 online at any one time.

To celebrate its 100th dedicated server with RapidSwitch, Creeperhost is offering a discount on its servers.

iomart group PLC (IOM:LSE) set a new 52-week high during today's trading session when it reached 264.00. Over this period, the share price is up 85.92%.