‘Unstoppable’ Iomart says profits will beat City forecast thanks to takeovers

SHARES in website-hosting firm Iomart leapt by as much as 13 per cent on Thursday after it said revenues and profits were “substantially ahead” of last year.

In a pre-close trading update before its half-year results, the Glasgow-based firm said it was confident its financial performance for the full year would be ahead of market expectations.

Iomart, which is run by chief executive Angus MacSween, said the two businesses it acquired last month, Melbourne and Skymarket, were being integrated successfully and would soon be contributing to profits.

The firm added: “We will continue to pursue further opportunities for acquisitions of quality, high-margin businesses that make a contribution to profits.”

In addition, the company’s clients – typically small and medium-sized firms – are increasingly staying with Iomart when contracts came up for renewal.

The firm said: “Cloud computing will continue to be critical to all companies over the next few years, as corporate budgets continue to support online strategies, and the move to a hosting environment which delivers significant cost savings and flexibility becomes more compelling.

“The market potential remains substantial as it is estimated that, while there has been a strong increase in hosted services in recent years, approximately 85 per cent of all servers are still located at a company’s own premises.”

Canaccord Genuity analyst Jonathan Imlah described Iomart as “unstoppable”, adding: “This performance is especially impressive given a relatively-slow August as a result of the distraction of the Olympics.”