July 30, 2008 – (HOSTSEARCH.COM) – Managed hosting and data center services provider iomart PLC has reported a 17% increase in sales of managed hosting services in the financial year 2007/08. Revenues from its fledgling data center and managed services company have increased by 63% to £1.4m ($2.7m). The company’s Easyspace web hosting business also saw an increase of 9% to £6.3m ($12.4m).
“This has been a transformational year with the successful sale of Ufindus for £20m and the development of our complex managed hosting business using our own network of carrier neutral datacenters,” explained the CEO of iomart, Mr. Angus MacSween. “We are now well positioned to address our chosen market with the firepower to make strategic acquisitions in combination with our organic growth.”
In February 2007, iomart purchased four data centers and has since opened two fully-refurbished facilities – one in Glasgow, and one in the heart of the City of London. A third will be launched in Nottingham next week, with the final data centre, Leicester, expected to be ready for business during August. Despite investing £3m in its data centre infrastructure over the year, the group’s profitability has suffered limited impact with EBITDA of £1M ($1.9 M).
“Our focus on the data centre offering is paying off and we’re in a great position to win more high-margin corporate business,” continued Mr. MacSween. “A complete ‘one source’ managed hosting service is very different to what’s on offer from other providers, ie space and power only, which puts us in a very strong position in the market. We’ve equipped our four data centres with the latest technology and ensured that we have ample power to cope with expected future computing demands. We suffer none of the legacy problems that face many of today’s operators and this, coupled with a decade of hosting expertise, has been a significant selling point for us. This has been demonstrated by the group winning its largest single contract worth £5.75m over 5 years with BT.”
Mr. MacSween also added that money generated from the company’s sale of Ufindus will enable it to consider acquisitions. “With the sale of Ufindus we find ourselves in the enviable position of having sufficient funding to fully underwrite our current business plans, without having to place reliance on borrowing facilities at this testing time in the credit market. We will be exploring a number of acquisition opportunities during the next year which will enable us to add revenues, skills and savings to the group.”
