CORPORATE HISTORY

Ten Years of Building Leadership: Iron Mountain's History as a Public Company

Iron Mountain was founded in 1951 and operated as a privately owned company until its IPO on February 1st, 1996, when it raised $38 million of equity capital. Over the next 10 years, the Company made major milestones in all aspects of growth:

• Revenue Growth: During the 10 years since IPO, Iron Mountain has grown revenues 1,900 percent -- from $104 million to $2.078 billion in 2005.
• Geographic Expansion: In 1995, Iron Mountain operated only in the U.S. By the end of 2005, Iron Mountain had generated 28 percent of pro forma revenues internationally, having expanded its market presence to 26 countries. Globalisation has been a primary focus for the Company because the core businesses are physical, and building the global footprint was critical to supporting its largest clients wherever they do business. With a global network of support, Iron Mountain is the only company that can enable its customers to apply consistent information storage and protection programmes across all business units and geographies, a requirement in today’s business environment.
• Scale through Acquisition: Iron Mountain primarily grew its geographic footprint and portfolio expansion through acquisition. Since its IPO, the Company has acquired more than 150 companies. And while the acquisition growth phase is largely over, Iron Mountain continues to acquire for strategic growth areas for the company, most notably in the shredding and technology markets. Notably, while the Company acquired and integrated, it also sustained an impressive average annual internal growth rate of 10 percent.
• Expanding Portfolio of Services: With the ability to service its largest customers wherever they do business, Iron Mountain shifted its focus toward expanding its portfolio of services based on clients’ increasing need for reducing costs and risks associated with information protection and storage. Over the past 10 years, the Company introduced 14 new service categories – extending its records management, data protection and information destruction solution areas.
• Added Digital to Physical: In support of explosive information growth, new regulations and litigation demands, Iron Mountain built the digital analogy to its core physical businesses: E-Records Management and Digital Data Protection. Somewhat ahead of its time, Iron Mountain made an early investment in these digital services to address burgeoning compliance requirements, calling for a holistic approach to information protection and storage. In 1995, more than 90 percent of its revenues were derived from the storage and services related to paper documents and vital records; but by 2005, 19 percent of revenues came from off-site data protection and 6 percent (pro forma) from on-line digital services. Today, Iron Mountain is a leading provider of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) for managing e-records and protecting distributed data.
• Solid Compound Annual Growth Rate: The Company attained a total revenue CAGR of 35 percent, with an annual high of 91 percent in 1998 and low of 11 percent in 2002. Of the total revenue growth attained for the ten years, 25 percentage points came from acquisitions and 10 percentage points were generated internally.
• Rock Steady Internal Growth: The internal growth rate of the Company has averaged 10 percent per year since 1995 with a high of 13 percent and low of 5 percent during the period.
• Gross Margin Expansion: During the ten year period, Iron Mountain grew gross margin from 49.9 percent in 1995 to a high of 54.9 percent in 2005. OIBDA margins grew from 25 to 27.6 percent in 2005 – in the face of acquisition integration and necessary infrastructure development.
• Funding Growth: In addition to the $38 million raised in the IPO, Iron Mountain issued stock in two follow-on equity offerings for a total equity capital of $300 million. The Company also issued equity securities in 10 acquisitions for a total amount of $651 million. The Company has also relied on the public debt markets to fund its rapid growth. Total debt grew from $122 million in 1995 to $2.525 billion in 2005; total leverage ratio has ranged from a high of 5.8x’s in 1997 to 4.5x’s as of the end of 2005.
• Market Cap: Total market cap has grown from $153 million at the IPO to $5.6 billion as of December 31, 2005 and Iron Mountain’s share price has grown from $4.74 per share (adjusted for three stock splits) to $42.22 as of the end of 2005, a CAGR of 24.7 percent.

Then & Now