Iomart: Loyal customers will help full-year profits

The Glasgow-based group has made a series of takeovers during the past year, including the £1.4 million purchase of Skymarket in July, adding Melbourne Server Hosting the following month for £6.7m, and chief executive Angus MacSween said the newly-acquired businesses were performing well.

He added: “Iomart continues to benefit from a compelling mix of a growing market, recurring revenues, sticky customers, good forward visibility and a leading competitive position. As a result we remain very confident of further growth in the next financial year and beyond.”

MacSween, who launched Iomart in 1998 and floated it on the Alternative Investment Market (Aim) in 2000, said the company was on track to deliver an underlying pre-tax profit of about £10.6m for the year to 31 March, up from £6.9m the previous year and just ahead of consensus forecasts of £10.5m.

He said: “Iomart Hosting has continued to win a substantial number of contracts over the year, as the group continues to benefit from the growing adoption of cloud-type services by organisations who need a strong partner with the necessary infrastructure to provide the certainty, scalability and flexibility they are looking for.”

The group’s underlying profits almost doubled to £6.9m last year, on turnover 33 per cent higher at £33.5m. Following the acquisition of Melbourne, it agreed a deal in October, worth up to £1.5m, to take control of hosting provider Internet Engineering. This business has now been integrated, along with Skymarket, into Iomart’s Easyspace web hosting division.

MacSween said: “The group has delivered strong organic growth as well as good performances from its acquired businesses and the board sees that pattern continuing as further consolidation takes place.”

Iomart, which paid a final dividend of 0.9p a share last year, publishes its results on 29 May.