iomart Group plc Acquisition of EQSN Ltd

iomart Group plc, the cloud computing and managed hosting company, is pleased to announce that it has today acquired the entire issued share capital of EQSN for a total cash consideration of £2,475,000,  with £2,250,000 payable at completion and a deferred consideration of up to £225,000 contingent on the successful integration of the operations of EQSN into the Group. The acquisition will be financed jointly from the Company's balance sheet and through a drawdown of £1,000,000 from the Company's bank loan facility.

EQSN is a Glasgow based provider of managed hosting solutions to a varied range of clients including some high profile names and quoted companies. EQSN was established in 2000 by a team of highly experienced technical and commercial individuals who identified a need for quality services in the datacentre market. The team's engineering background provides for a deep knowledge of customer service management, network engineering and IT systems management, with a strong commitment to service agreements. The facilities have grown to cover three diverse sites (Glasgow, Edinburgh and Boston, USA), providing resilient engineering for power, cooling, network, security, monitoring and capacity.

EQSN's turnover in the year to 31 July 2011 was £1.7m with an EBITDA of £251k and net assets of £404k. At completion EQSN is expected to have net cash of around £225,000. This acquisition adds to iomart's high quality managed hosting customer base and brings opportunities for cost savings. The acquisition is expected to be immediately earnings enhancing before acquisition costs and normal acquisition adjustments including any fair value adjustments and the amortisation of intangible assets.

Angus MacSween, Chief Executive stated:

"The addition of EQSN to the business is a strong strategic and cultural fit and will consolidate our position as a leading player in the managed hosting sector. The Group will remain focused on providing practical, cost-effective solutions to customers' IT needs. Customers increasingly demand reliable IT infrastructure-as-a-service as the need for a scalable and flexible way of working grows; with EQSN's expertise, iomart is even better placed to deliver this.

"The acquisition of EQSN is important as we continue to drive the growth of our managed services and hosting activities.  EQSN not only increases the size of, and extends, our existing hosting and managed services business but also brings us additional recurring income from a high quality customer base."