Shares in iomart fell yesterday as investors reacted to Cinven’s decision to end its takeover interest in the Scottish cloud computing firm.
The private equity group last month announced that its Host Europe Holdings (HEH) subsidiary had made three bids to take control of the Glasgow company.
The move had twice been resisted, but iomart senior management had indicated support for a third offer which valued the business at around £320 million.
However, the potential deal fell through on Monday after HEH confirmed it did not intend making a formal offer for iomart.
The Scottish group yesterday said it was no longer considered to be in an offer period under the terms of the City code on takeovers and mergers.
In a pre-close update it said had performed strongly in the six months to September 30, with both revenue and profit expected to be “substantially” ahead of the year previous.
The firm said it was confident in its full-year outlook, with demand for its services “strong and growing” as the market continued to move towards online service provision.
“The group has delivered strong growth as we continue to execute on our focused strategy of providing high quality and high margin managed solutions,” chief executive Angus MacSween said.
“With an outstanding track record and an established reputation as the UK’s leading cloud computing company, we look forward to the future success of iomart.”
Shares in the group closed the day down 36.25p or 13.80% at 226.50p yesterday.