Angus MacSween set for £10m Iomart stake sale windfall

The share sale announcement came as Iomart bought a cloud backup provider for £23m

Tech entrepreneur Angus MacSween is set to cash in up to £10m worth of shares in cloud computing firm Iomart.

Mr MacSween is one of three directors who have announced their intention to sell a combined total of up to £11.8m of ordinary shares in the company.

The news came as Glasgow-based Iomart bought cloud backup and disaster recovery services provider Backup Technology (BTL) for £23m.

The deal is AIM-listed Iomart's biggest acquisition to date.

In a stock market announcement, Iomart said it had been advised by its chief executive, Mr MacSween, and directors Richard Logan and Sarah Haran of their intention to sell shares, with Ms Haran selling up to £1,050,000 worth of ordinary shares and Mr Logan up to £750,000 in shares.

It continued: "The placing is subject to pricing acceptable to the selling directors.

"The principal purpose of the placing is to allow Mr MacSween to rebalance his portfolio and utilise his entrepreneurs' relief.

"Mr MacSween has agreed not to sell any further shares for the foreseeable future and no earlier than the release of the publication of the final results for the year ended 31 March 2015."

It added: "The company believes that the placing will have the additional and material benefit of increasing both the free float and the liquidity of the company's shares.

Acquisition

In a separate announcement, Iomart said it had bought Backup Technology (BTL) for £17.5m in cash and £3.5m in shares, with a further £2m in cash to be paid at the end of January.

BTL's customers include Siemens, Suzuki and Pernod Ricard, as well as Liverpool and Everton football clubs.

It is Iomart's biggest acquisition to date.

Established in 2005, Leeds-based BTL reported turnover of £5.2m last year. It employs 16 people.

Mr MacSween said: "BTL gives Iomart a solid and well-established platform to grow further from, with a very good enterprise customer base and little crossover from the existing group base.

"It's a very good strategic fit, complementing our portfolio of existing products."

BTL is Iomart's second acquisition this year.

Last month it bought Redstation, a provider of dedicated servers and managed services in Hampshire.