LONDON (ShareCast) - New business and acquisitions helped cloud computing company Iomart to forecast better-than-expected annual profits.

Iomart said its hosting operation had continued to win a "substantial" amount of business during the year.

The division also benefited from contributions from Redstation, and Backup Technology, the cloud back-up business, both of which were acquired in September 2013 and have been successfully integrated into the group.

Iomart owns and manages data centres at eight sites across the UK as well as its own dedicated high-speed fibre network.

It says companies using its services can cut costs, complexity and risks by avoiding having to maintain their own web and online systems.

The group revealed it expected pre-tax earnings before interest, depreciation and amortisation of about £23.6m in the year to March 31st, against £16.4m a year ago. Adjusted pre-tax profit should come in at about £14.5m against £10.6m beforehand. It said both profit figures were slightly ahead of market consensus expectations.

Chief Executive Angus MacSween said: "Iomart has enjoyed another year of good organic growth, buoyed further by our recent acquisitions.

"There is no doubt that we are seeing a long term shift towards a cloud dominated technology landscape, and we are well positioned to take advantage of that."

Shares rose 7p or 2.9% to 251p by 15:40 in London.

PW

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