Iron Mountain going back to roots in storage services
Iron Mountain going back to roots in storage services
Company changes direction, considers selling off digital business
By Lucas Mearian
April 27, 2011 06:00 AM ET
Computerworld — A week after Iron Mountain announced it had replaced its CEO, the company said it’s considering selling its archiving, e-discovery and online backup and recovery business to return to its roots in document and tape storage services.
“There’s no guarantee a deal will get done because we’re still early in the process, but we have good interest. And as you can imagine these processes take a matter of a few months, before we know it will unwind itself,” said Richard Reese, who abruptly took over as CEO on April 14.
Read MoreIron Mountain Calms Bondholders on $2.2 Billion Payout: Corporate Finance
By Sapna Maheshwari and Danielle Kucera — Apr 20, 2011 11:00 PM CT
Iron Mountain Inc. (IRM), the document– storage company that was pressured by Elliott Management Corp. to change its strategy, is persuading the bond market it can reward shareholders without harming its creditworthiness.
The company’s $300 million of 8 percent notes due June 2020 rose for the first time in six days yesterday, gaining 0.25 cent to 103.5 cents on the dollar, according to Trace, the bond-price reporting system of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.
Iron Mountain Chief Executive Officer Richard Reese assured debt investors yesterday the Boston-based company’s leverage would face no more than a “slight increase” as it returns $2.2 billion to shareholders through 2013. Last month, hedge fund Elliott Management called for a review of Iron Mountain, citing a loss of shareholder value from parts of its international and digital businesses.
“The sources of the funds are coming, by and large, from operations, free cash flow, as well as from a slight increase in our leverage,” Reese, 65, who led the company between 1981 and 2008 and resumed that role last week, said in a conference call. “I want to be real clear to the debt markets who might be listening, or hopefully are listening, we’re talking about going from a little under 3 times leveraged to 3.5.”
12-Month Return
The return to shareholders in the next 12 months will be $1.2 billion, including “potential one-time dividends,” in addition to quarterly distributions and share buybacks, Iron Mountain said in a statement on April 19.
The 8 percent notes fell to 103.25 cents on the dollar that day to yield 7.46 percent, Trace data show. The debt traded at 107.6 cents with a 6.92 percent yield on March 2, Trace data show.
The average B rated security yields 7.38 percent, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch index data. The senior subordinated notes from Iron Mountain are graded B1 by Moody’s Investors Service and B+ by Standard & Poor’s, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Investors were concerned the company might take on more debt to make payouts to fend off pressure from shareholders, said Sabur Moini, a money manager who oversees more than $2 billion of high-yield debt at Los Angeles-based Payden & Rygel, including bonds from Iron Mountain.
‘Not Bondholder-Friendly’
“Whenever news like this comes out, it’s bad for the bonds because the expectation is that the company to save itself will have to do something that’s not bondholder-friendly,” Moini said. “It probably makes sense to take in more information and not be one of the first to sell at a low print,” he said on April 19.
Iron Mountain initially adopted a so-called poison-pill provision, meant to keep dissident investors from gaining control of it. Last week, Bob Brennan resigned as CEO, and the company said in an April 19 statement it plans to sell parts of its digital unit and return cash to shareholders.
Iron Mountain also said it’s setting up a committee to explore conversion into a real estate investment trust as part of an agreement with Elliott Management. REITs must pass on at least 90 percent of their annual taxable profit to shareholders through dividends.
New York-based Elliott Management, run by Paul Singer, has said it owns “slightly under” 5 percent of Iron Mountain’s stock.
As part of its agreement with Elliott Management, Iron Mountain also agreed to nominate Allan Loren, one of the company’s four candidates, to its board at the 2011 annual meeting, scheduled for June 10. Elliott Management agreed to withdraw its other nominees at the event, Iron Mountain said.
Underground Facility
Iron Mountain, founded in an underground facility near Hudson, New York, in 1951, stores and maintains materials for clients, including records, electronic files, medical data and e-mail, according to its most recent annual report. It works with more than 150,000 corporations in North America, Europe, Latin America and Asia Pacific.
The company, which had $2.9 billion of long-term debt as of Dec. 31, went public in 1996 and joined the S&P 500 Index (SPX) in January 2009, according to the filing.
Iron Mountain’s $548 million of 8.375 percent bonds maturing in August 2021 also rose yesterday after falling since April 14, Trace data show. The debt climbed 1.5 cents to 106 cents on the dollar to yield 7.5 percent, the data show.
Before yesterday’s call, S&P, which assigns Iron Mountain a BB– grade, changed its outlook on the company to “negative” from “stable,” according to an April 19 note.
‘Financial Risk’
“We expect the company will have to raise new debt and draw under its revolving credit facility to finance the entire planned $2.2 billion,” S&P analysts Tulip Lim and Andy Liu wrote in the note. “The transaction will raise financial risk amid uncertainty as to financing terms.”
The payouts could increase the company’s debt to earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization to more than five times from the “low” four times area now, the analysts wrote. A debt to EBITDA ratio above 5.5 times would spur a downgrade, they wrote.
“More leverage makes bondholders increasingly uncomfortable,” said Andrew Wittmann, an analyst at Robert W. Baird & Co. in Milwaukee.
The company’s target leverage of 3.5 times looks “about right,” said Wittman, who has a “neutral” rating on the stock. “Shareholders feel very comfortable there, and I feel like bondholders should feel pretty comfortable as well,” he said.
Credit Swaps
Credit-default swaps on Iron Mountain’s subordinated bonds fell after soaring on April 19 to the highest since September, according to data provider CMA. The contracts, which typically rise as investor confidence worsens and fall as it improves, fell 7 basis points to 418.9 yesterday, CMA data show.
Default swaps pay the buyer face value if a borrower fails to meet its obligations, less the value of the defaulted debt. A basis point equals $1,000 annually on a contract protecting $10 million of debt.
“Some could even argue we’re under-levered,” Reese said on the conference call. “We think we’re appropriately levered at this space, given where the business is and given the amount of capital we’re talking about and we think this is the right thing to do. But this is not coming from a big leverage up for the business at this stage.”
To contact the reporters responsible for this story: Sapna Maheshwari in New York at sapnam@bloomberg.net; Danielle Kucera in New York at wkoenig@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alan Goldstein at agoldstein5@bloomberg.net Tom Giles at tgiles@bloomberg.net
Compliments of FileMan Research
Read MoreIron Mountain to Return Cash, May Sell Digital Assets
Iron Mountain to Return Cash, May Sell Digital Assets
By Danielle Kucera — Apr 20, 2011 9:45 AM CT
(Corrects story that ran April 19 to show Iron Mountain is considering selling only parts of its digital business.)
Iron Mountain Inc. (IRM), the world’s largest document storage company, said it will return cash to shareholders and may sell parts of its digital unit after pressure from hedge fund investor Elliott Management Corp.
Iron Mountain also agreed to consider converting to a real estate investment trust, a move that Elliott encouraged, Iron Mountain said in a statement today. One of Elliott’s nominees will join the Iron Mountain board, staving off a proxy fight in which the fund manager run by Paul Singer had sought four seats.
The New York-based hedge fund, which owns less than 5 percent of Iron Mountain, called for a review of the storage company’s strategy, operations and capital in a statement March 10, saying the company’s stock could more than double to $77 a share if it converted to a REIT and implemented its other proposals.
“Investors should be pleasantly surprised that the return of capital is quite significant,” said Andrew Wittmann, an analyst at Robert W. Baird & Co. in Milwaukee, who is neutral on the stock. “The 12-month plan is pretty aggressive, so they’re going to have to start pretty soon.”
The document-storage company plans to return about $1.2 billion to shareholders during the next 12 months through stock repurchases and dividends and distribute about $2.2 billion through 2013, according to the statement. Iron Mountain took most of Elliott’s suggestions, Wittmann said.
Digital Business
Iron Mountain, based in Boston, provides business storage and maintains documents including records, electronic files, medical data and e-mail. Iron Mountain’s effort to expand its international and digital businesses hasn’t been profitable enough, Elliott said in March.
Iron Mountain rose $1, or 3 percent, to $34.90 as of 4:15 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. It has risen 33 percent since March 9, the day before Elliott called for a strategic review of the company.
“We strongly support the board of directors’ plan to increase stockholder value with the actions announced today,” Ken Charles Feinberg, co-portfolio manager at New York-based Davis Selected Advisers LLP, Iron Mountain’s largest investor as of March with a 21 percent share, said in the statement.
‘Strategic Alternatives’
Iron Mountain’s management “concluded that the company could not continue investing in technology development and meet its return requirements and that exploring strategic alternatives for the digital business was in the best interest of Iron Mountain’s stockholders,” according to the document– storage company’s statement. Options include a potential sale of the company’s digital archiving and online backup services.
Less than two weeks after Elliott’s proposal, Iron Mountain adopted a so-called poison-pill provision, meant to keep investors from gaining control of the company. The shareholder– rights plan was a reaction to “extraordinary trading activity” in the company’s securities, said Stephen Golden, vice president of investor relations at Iron Mountain.
Last week, Iron Mountain Chairman Richard Reese took on the chief executive officer role after Bob Brennan stepped down as president and CEO.
As part of its pact with Elliott, Iron Mountain today agreed to nominate Allan Loren, one of Elliott’s candidates, to its board of directors at the 2011 annual meeting, scheduled for June 10. Elliott agreed to withdraw its other nominees for the board at the event, Iron Mountain said.
Constantin R. Boden, a board member for more than 20 years, is retiring, according to the statement. The company will work in tandem with Elliott and Davis Selected Advisers to fill the position with an independent candidate, Iron Mountain said.
Iron Mountain’s board plans to form a committee, chaired by Reese, to evaluate ways to maximize value through alternative financing, capital and tax strategies and will make the analysis of a REIT conversion “first priority,” the company said.
J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and Morgan Stanley (MS) are serving as financial advisers for Iron Mountain, and Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP and Sullivan & Worcester LLP are serving as legal advisers. Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP is the legal adviser to Elliott.
To contact the reporter responsible for this story: Danielle Kucera at dkucera6@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Tom Giles at tgiles5@bloomberg.net
Compliments of FileMan Research
Read MoreIron Mountain Inc Re-appoints Chairman Richard Reese as CEO
UPDATE 3-Reese returns as Iron Mountain CEO; top shareholder lauds move
Iron Mountain Inc Re-appoints Chairman Richard Reese as CEO
Thu Apr 14, 2011 4:13pm EDT
Bob Brennan steps down as CEO, resigns as director Davis Advisors expects co to exit digital business
Shares up 5 pct at 3-yr high (Adds response from largest shareholder; company background)
By Himank Sharma
BANGALORE, April 14 (Reuters) — Iron Mountain Inc’s move to bring back its chief executive of three decades will likely help the document storage company change its loss-making digital business strategy, its largest shareholder said.
Tuscon-Arizona based money manager Davis Advisers, which holds over 21 percent of Iron Mountain, said the company’s board had consulted it before bringing back Richard Reese, following shareholder dissent over the company’s operational spending.
“I’ve met Richard several times. They have taken a lot of feedback, and the directors have reached out to our proposal,” Ken Charles Feinberg, co-portfolio manager of Davis Advisers told Reuters.
Last month, Davis had said it will support hedge fund Elliott Management’s proposal to nominate a slate of four directors to the company’s board. [ID:nL3E7EN31K]
Reese, 65, who has been the chairman of the board since 1995, replaces Robert Brennan, who also resigned as a director of the company.
Investors cheered the appointment of Reese, who was instrumental in making Iron Mountain a dominant player in North American physical storage. Under his leadership, the company went public in 1996 and acquired local rivals later.
Iron Mountain shares rose 5 percent to a three-year high of $34.59 on Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange.
Iron Mountain began its digital records business at the height of the dot-com boom, hoping to get business from large corporations looking to store their email and instant message conversations for future retrievals.
“The foray into digital was a failure, they invested $600–700 million to grow that business and they were barely earning any money. In order to have a fresh set of eyes, the change was needed to be made,” Feinberg said.
The company had written off $283.8 million as impairment charges in fiscal 2010 for its worldwide digital business due to the sale of the domain name management product line, according to its latest annual filing.
“The board was not hundred percent pleased with company’s response to the Elliott proposal and Reese will be a strong leader,” analyst Edward Atorino at the Benchmark Co said. (Reporting by Himank Sharma and Rachana Khanzode in Bangalore; Editing by Prem Udayabhanu, Vyas Mohan)
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/14/ironmountain-idUSL3E7FE20520110414
Compliments of FileMan
Read More8 Reasons to Outsource Document Management
8 Reasons to Outsource Document Management
Today’s guest post was a group effort by some of the folks at Iron Mountain. Iron Mountain is a world leader in information management services, assisting more than 140,000 organizations in 39 countries on five continents with storing, protecting and managing their information. Iron Mountain currently safeguards and provides access to more than 425 million cubic feet of paper records, 10 billion emails, 65 million computer backup tapes, 2.5 million PCs and 20,000 servers.
Iron Mountain was a sponsor of our Spring ECM seminar series; this was the topic they addressed in the seminars. Registration is already open for the Fall Series:
Sep 14 2010 Atlanta, GA
Sep 16 2010 Washington, DC
Sep 22 2010 Toronto, ON
Sep 28 2010 Boston, MA
Sep 30 2010 New York, NY
Oct 5 2010 Minneapolis, MN
Oct 7 2010 Chicago, IL
8 Reasons to Outsource Document Management
When confronted with information management challenges, many organizations operate on a reactive basis—developing ad hoc solutions to specific problems as they arise. And because of this, many document management programs are rife with duplicate capabilities, non-standard approaches and process inefficiencies. The result is that companies are becoming exposed to unnecessary risks and costs and missing out on opportunities to add business value.
It’s time to take a step back and view information management as a critical process on par with more traditional business operations. But few organizations have the time or expertise to build an information management program that meets today’s needs—and will be ready for whatever the future holds.
That’s where working with a knowledgeable partner and leveraging a hosted solution can make a all the difference. They can help you quickly reach a new level of information management capability without a major up-front investment in software, hardware and in-house skills.
Here are our top eight tips for getting your information management strategy and program back on track through the use of outsourcing and hosted solutions.
1 — Avoid making a “platform decision” at all.
The investment in procuring and operating a modern, enterprise-class document management system is significant—and many solutions offer high-end features, such as workflow, that few small and mid-size businesses need.
Hosted document management solutions offer a usage-based cost model that allows you to pay only for the services you need and the volume you process. What’s more, since your partner is responsible for hardware and software upgrades and that cost is prorated across all organizations using the service, you gain access to the latest and greatest without having to spend your limited capital funds.
2 — Get an expert to tame the paper monster.
The average business produces a massive volume of documents, which makes locating and retrieving vital records in a timely fashion a challenge. In addition, files are frequently organized by non-standard indexing schemes that do not support enterprise-wide discovery efforts.
A single source supplier for document management solutions can help limit operational and legal risks by holistically managing an organization’s information assets. With document management as their core business, these partners have seen and done it all—developing best practices and expertise based on hundreds of customer engagements.
3 — Don’t wait to collaborate.
IDC estimates that the typical enterprise with 1,000 knowledge workers wastes $2.5 to $3.5 million per year searching for nonexistent information, failing to find existing information or recreating information that can’t be found. These estimates are supported by other research that shows that professionals spend 5 to 15 percent of their time reading information, and up to 50 percent looking for it.
Hosted document management solutions can be up and running in a matter of weeks, compared to the months it takes to evaluate, procure and install an in-house solution. This speeds time to value, accelerates decision making and increases productivity thanks to easy access to the information workers need to do their jobs.
4 — Chain of custody matters.
Maintaining a strong chain of custody for documents is essential to minimizing business risk. With in-house document management solutions, physical records are often moved from offsite storage facilities to be scanned at another location and then returned for re-filing. Every step introduces an opportunity for lost and improperly filed documents.
By choosing a single source provider for records storage and document management solutions, chain of custody risks are mitigated. Physical documents can be retrieved, scanned and re-filed in a single location, so that the paper file never leaves the security of the vendor’s facility. In addition, document-level audit trails are maintained, which can be extremely valuable should your organization be required to produce document histories as part of legal or regulatory actions.
5 — Hybrid solutions “fuel” process efficiency.
Managing documents with unstructured content and in non-standard formats requires a level of cross-process coordination that consumes more business and information technology resources than most organizations realize. With documents stored in paper file cabinets, record storage boxes in distributed locations or electronic files in multiple applications, this untamed storage environment makes rapid information access a challenge.
A hybrid document management solution combines the cost-effectiveness of traditional paper storage for the bulk of your records, with the speed, convenience and cost-savings of digital access. Files are kept in paper format, but scanned and digitized on demand according to business needs. Only a single-source provider that offers physical records storage and outsourced document management can offer the efficiency of this hybrid model.
6 — Arm knowledge workers with self-service tools.
In today’s find-it-yourself, search-engine-enabled world, employees demand self-service document access and management tools. As a result, the document management specialist’s role has changed from records gatekeeper to an information access coach or mentor.
As such, it’s important that digital file access and management be put in the hands of the end users—the people who know the documents, their business uses and access requirements. A hosted document management system must support this need, with intelligent scanning and image capture features supported by a digitization process that addresses the requirements for each document type. And as documents are imaged, they should be made available per your specific requirements—via an FTP site, in an ECM-ready form or via a hosted repository.
7 — Create a plan that reflects best practices.
Few organizations have the resources or expertise to create/overhaul their information management strategy and/or solutions. And with businesses challenged to do more with less, this complex task frequently falls to the bottom of the to-do list.
When outsourced experts take care of document management needs, companies can rest easy knowing that conversion process, retention schedule, information security and privacy best practices are being maintained and consistently followed. This approach, with appropriate oversight on your part, reduces the risk of compliance violations and associated costs.
8 — Change doesn’t have to be difficult.
Changing information management strategy and processes can be easier than you imagine. An experienced records management partner, with years of multi-industry experience, can typically address the complexities of a comprehensive records management strategy more effectively and cost-efficiently than your organization. And, at the same time, provide a holistic solution that will return significant additional value because the component pieces are capable of working together in a seamless fashion while removing any duplication of effort.
http://aiim.typepad.com/aiim_blog/2010/05/8-reasons-to-outsource-document-managementwhen-confronted-with-information-management-challenges-many-organizations-operate.html
Compliments of FileMan Research
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