Iomart Share Discussion Threads

[robsy2] 25/9/2007 16:39

Mesquida
I wouldn't mind a peep at that article . Can you post it up?

[mesquida] 04/9/2007 08:23

Thanks for posting that, Mothy. I was a shareholder in REDBUS (stolen from us by 3Is in the guise of Telecity and now apparently about to be sold on at a substantially higher price) so I well understand the value in Datacentres. Sure, we have had our disappointments in the past with IOMART but the management must now be applauded for this most recent acquisition. Clearly the current price is wrong, reflecting as it does all the problems of the past with nothing in there for the potential of the future. Reading your posting yesterday was just the catalyst I needed to get me moving, so I bought another 50,000, at 52.5p. Dealing was not too difficult- clearly there is a seller around- but I cannot believe that this will still be down at this level come Christmas. Again, thanks for your posting. Sure is strange that your posting has not provoked more comment. There must still be some private investor interest in IOMART somewhere!

[mothy2005] 27/8/2007 08:49

Taken from a KBC Peel Hunt report dated 24 August 2007:

The current valuation represents a substantial discount to a sum of the parts
valuation, given the cash generative nature of the legacy webservices division and
the exposure to highly sought after datacentres. Datacentre value derives from
extremely limited supply: in London, for example, CBRE estimates c.4% available
furnished datacentre space, which is expected to be exhausted by year end.
iomart has a 55,000 sq ft portfolio of datacentres based in five cities around the UK
The value of a datacentre: We estimate the replacement cost of the datacentres
at £33m, while at the IXEurope EBITDA exit multiple we could assume £59m. If we
remove that value from IOM's current market cap then the derived value of the
webservices division is £20m, equivalent to a mere 3.3x March 2009E PBT (no
cash tax being payable), and only 6.5x March 2008E.
The value of webservices: We are not being ambitious in assigning a 10x PER to
webservices March 2009E PBT, which leads us to a valuation of £61m. The
division, consisting mainly of ufindus, the online business directory, and
Easyspace, the domain and web hosting business, and is cash generative. On that
basis, the value of the datacentres is negative!
We therefore reiterate that the current market valuation is, in our opinion, below any
reasonable sum of the parts assessment. Our lowest case, of 10x March 2008E for
webservices (therefore £31m) and replacement cost of £33m for datacentres,
would equate to 65p. Our best case at 10x March 2009E PER for webservices and
£59m for datacentres would equate to 120p. We would suggest a 90-100p range is
the reasonable compromise that can be justified without reaching metrics that
would be testing: webservices at 10x March 2009E PER, and datacentres at £33m.
The company announced at finals in June that it had been able to secure 100%
ownership of Easyspace datacentres, 18 months earlier than was expected as a
best result, due to the defaulted contribution of the co-owner 186k. The potential
maximum cash payment to secure the 100% was £20m, whereas now the
minimum, £4.8m, will be payable in April 2009, although 100% ownership is
expected to accrue from October. The initial depression to group PBT is
dramatically improved by the benefit following March 2008E.

[mothy2005] 20/7/2007 19:51

Iomart gets another mention in Moneyweek and with Equinix upping their offer for IXEurope by 30 million to £270m, IOM is now looking seriously undervalued. Noticed that Gartmore have increased their holding recently ... they must agree with me.

[mesquida] 01/7/2007 19:03

IEX takeout price makes IOMART´s data centre purchase look like a steal. Obviously the management has lost a great deal of credibility over the past two years, but I suspect that there is a quick 50% to be had once the City starts to focus on the potential in the data centres. The London centre in particular looks like a goose that might lay golden eggs!

[mothy2005] 22/6/2007 08:06

Nice positive article:

[mothy2005] 21/6/2007 08:22

Poised for very good growth. What a bonus that they will be able to pick up the remaining 49% of the Datacenter business for no more than £4.8m. With the likes of IXEurope showing exceptional growth it wont be too long before IOM is considered to be a very undervalued stock. It's a shame the 'netintelligence' side of the co is still failing to perform considering it wins awards for its brilliance. Perhaps google should buy it off them for a cool £50m!

[gerri-c] 21/5/2007 13:04

+10p beginning to look a real short-term possibility?

[robsy2] 21/5/2007 12:58

ticking up nicely

[kennerland] 18/5/2007 22:17

Looking to buy here.IX europe is developing quickly .With limited supply of datacentres I see iomart growing earnings rapidly.Telecity Redbus will list shortly,which will raise the profile of datacentre companies.

[trustman] 15/5/2007 21:48

Looking good.....but can they pay the div?

[robsy2] 14/5/2007 16:22

Things are looking good . Encouraged by the article above and the fact that they have very strong institutional support at 55p I've added a few more, had to pay 58p for them though.

[mothy2005] 11/5/2007 14:57

Thanks for that 5dally
Here is the write-up :
Data centres are running out of space
by Eoin Gleeson
Advances in technology have seen radical changes in the size of our computers, but the image
of the room-sized supercomputers you may associate with the Cold War era
is not entirely a thing of the past. Today, banks and telecoms businesses rely on large
humming rooms of densely packed computers to power their web servers and store vast
quantities of customer information. But as these data centres become increasingly
expensive to run, companies are relying more and more on specialist data-centre providers to house
back-up facilities for them – which has seen the return of the "internet hotel".
Companies spent and lost a fortune on these internet hotels in the 1990s, as expectations of a "data tsunami" saw them build large sheds of computers to centrally back-up data. But while the
first wave of hotels went bust because of chronic overcapacity, today things look more solidly underpinned, says Nicole Lee on Breakingviews.
Government rules forcing firms to back-up their data mean demand for data centres in London's
financial sector is booming. In 2006, 72% of UK firms surveyed by accountant PricewaterhouseCoopers said their websites were externally hosted, from 45% in 2004. And after the collapse in prices that hit internet hotels in the dotcom bust, the industry now
has not over- but undercapacity. Analysts predict that data centre capacity in London is close to running out. The Aperture Research Institute found that of 600 in-house data centres surveyed, 90%
had IT equipment taking up 75% or more of available space. The report also found that nearly half of those surveyed are devoting 90% of available space to IT storage, which strongly suggests that
firms will have to expand into internet hotels in the near future. Trying to squeeze more capacity out of existing space risks crashing the system. "Any sort of compromise on capacity, power or
cooling could quickly lead to 'rack and ruin' for customers and providers alike," warns Tom Howard of data-centre provider Qube Networks. It's no surprise then that firms such as Telecity have hiked prices by 70% in recent months.
But it's not just about crash protection – there are lots of other reasons to use internet hotels. One is the cost of building a data centre – about £7,000 a square metre. Another is the spiralling cost of servicing such centres; consultancy Broadgroup reckons the annual cost of running the average UK data centre will more than double to £11m by 2010. By outsourcing, firms can save at least 30% over a DIY solution, says Michel Boussard, head of data centre Interxion. However, Breakingviews' Nicole Lee worries that "it's hard to see what will prevent a capacity explosion if prices continue to let rip". The supply/demand balance looks good now, but competitors are sure to be drawn in by the profits. However, given the cost and time it takes – typically two to three years – to construct suitable premises to power, cool and maintain the racks of servers in a data centre, there are still significant barriers to entry and Lee also acknowledges the pressing demand for data centres in London. In CanaryWharf in particular, much of the power infrastructure was installed a long time ago, to cater for technology that is no longer in use. London's financial sector is gasping for space. Even if the current wave of investment in web technologies dies down, the more mundane factors of overheating servers and regulatory requirements will ensure demand for data centres remains steady, notes Tim Bradshaw in Investors Chronicle.

[5dally] 11/5/2007 10:38

Positive write-up in Money week today

[mothy2005] 10/5/2007 12:22

Least they are getting something right:

Come on Iomart "screw the nut"!

[mothy2005] 27/4/2007 15:22

NetIntelligence bags another award.

Maybe this will help Iomart sell NI so that they can concentrate on Easyspace Datacentres. Its probably worth a few quid by now!

[robsy2] 10/4/2007 15:44

It seems like holders have had a rough ride here.Having had a quick look it would appear that the management are a bit accident prone so I have some doubts about them.Examples They don't know if they are selling 20k or 200k a month of one of their product lines, they also hoped that a prospective licensing deal being negotiated in March 07 would be enough to offset problems elsewhere and make their forcasts for the period ending 31st March 07. Amazing really !Having said that and despite all the negatives I think there is some hope here, a viewpoint shared by the institutions who took up the rights at 55p

[deam] 04/4/2007 22:05

This investment has been a complete and utter waste of time

[hyper al] 01/4/2007 22:08

I simply asked a question.

And you answered it.

Thanks.

[mesquida] 01/4/2007 18:42

True, you were a fan when you first started the thread, but since then you have continually used this board to publicly air your differences with the company, even those differences are of limited interest to those of us who have invested in the company. And now you are inferring that the company is not adopting best accounting practice when clearly you do not know which rules apply to which companies. For heaven´s sake, get a life!

[hyper al] 30/3/2007 23:44

mesquida

When I first created this thread, I did not make a dig at Iomart, so your comment about me is false!

"But of course we all know that you like to have a dig at the Company wherever possible"

[mesquida] 30/3/2007 19:05

Perhaps, Hyper Al, you are not aware that AIM stocks were granted one extra year´s grace before having to adopt IFRS, and as of today the vast majority of AIM stocks still have not adopted said principles. So, far from being tardy in this respect IOMART are in fact ahead of the pack. But of course we all know that you like to have a dig at the Company wherever possible - clearly your own business is keeping you as busy as it ever was!