Iron Mountain cleared to sell Australian operations

US-based storage and information management services company Iron Mountain has received ACCC approval to sell most of its legacy Australian operations for $70 million.

Iron Mountain is selling its Australian records management business to a consortium led by Housatonic Partners to satisfy a condition of its acquisition of Australian information management company Recall.

Iron Mountain completed the acquisition of Recall in May in a cash-and-shares deal valuing the latter at $3.7 billion.

But the ACCC’s decision not to oppose this acquisition was contingent on Iron Mountain agreeing to divest its existing Australian business — excluding its data management business — nationwide, and both its records and data management businesses in the Northern Territory.

The ACCC also stipulated that the sale of Iron Mountain’s Australian assets would itself require the regulator’s approval.

With the ACCC having now signed off on the divestment, Iron Mountain expects to complete the sale within 7–10 days.

The company expects to book a non-cash impairment charge for the third quarter of around US$14 million ($18.4 million) as a result of the sale.

Recall was demerged from supply chain logistics company Brambles in December 2013 and listed with a value of $1.9 billion. The company has around 300 dedicated operations centres across 24 countries in five continents and has more than 80,000 customers.

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