Acquisition & Issue of Equity

Iomart Group PLC 25 July 2003 iomart Group plc Acquisition of Web Genie Internet Limited (trading as NicNames) and placing of new shares to raise £0.8 million iomart Group plc ('iomart' or 'the Company') today announces that it has acquired, through its 75% owned subsidiary, iomart Internet Limited, the entire share capital of Web Genie Internet Limited ('NicNames') for a total consideration of £437,504 in cash. Of this consideration, £275,000 will be payable on completion with the balance being payable in 24 monthly instalments of £6,771. NicNames is a web hosting and domain registration business with a customer base of over 14,000 customers and 40,000 registered domains. Based on NicNames' unaudited management accounts for the 12 months ended 31 May 2003, the company generated revenue of £850,000 and a pre tax loss of £25,000. Net assets as at completion are expected to be £17,000, including £150,000 cash at bank. The acquisition of NicNames substantially increases iomart's customer base and will provide opportunities to sell the Company's other products to existing NicNames customers. It is also anticipated that significant reductions in NicNames' cost base can be achieved by merging its operations with iomart's. The Company also announces that 5,379,500 new ordinary shares of 1p each have been conditionally placed with institutional investors at a price of 15 pence per share, representing a discount of approximately 6.25 per cent. to the previous day's closing share price of 16 pence per share. Once completed, the placing will raise approximately £778,000 net of expenses for the Company. This placing has been undertaken to satisfy institutional demand for equity. The proceeds raised will be used to fund the acquisition of NicNames and for general working capital purposes, thereby supplementing iomart's net cash balances of approximately £3,400,000 (as at 21 July 2003) for continuing the roll out of NetIntelligence as well as for making other acquisitions as and when appropriate. These 5,379,500 new ordinary shares of 1 pence each will rank pari passu with all other ordinary shares now in issue. Application for these new shares to be admitted to trading on AIM has been made and admission is expected to occur on 28 July 2003. The placing is conditional upon admission of the new shares becoming effective on or before 28 July 2003 (or such later date as the Company and KBC Peel Hunt Ltd may agree, being no later than 4 August 2003). Following admission, the enlarged issued share capital of the Company will be 59,175,114 ordinary shares of 1p each. For further information, please contact: iomart Group plc Nick Kuenssberg (Chairman) 0141 931 7000 Angus MacSween (Chief Executive) 0141 931 7000 This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange

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Iomart Group (IOM)
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