Iron Mountain reports fourth quarter and full year 2023 results

— Net Income of $29 million; Achieves record quarterly and full year Revenue and Adjusted EBITDA —

— Data Center: Leased 124 megawatts for the full year 2023 —

— Issues Strong 2024 Guidance with Revenue Growth of 10-12% —

PORTSMOUTH, N.H.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Iron Mountain Incorporated (NYSE: IRM), a global leader in information management services, announces financial results for the fourth quarter and full year 2023. The conference call / webcast details, earnings call presentation and supplemental financial information, which includes definitions of certain capitalized terms used in this release, are available on Iron Mountain’s Investor Relations website. Reconciliations of non-GAAP measures to the appropriate GAAP measures are included herein.

“We are pleased to report outstanding performance in both the fourth quarter and the full year, again resulting in all-time record Revenue and Adjusted EBITDA,” said William L. Meaney, President and CEO of Iron Mountain. “We are well positioned to continue our growth trajectory in 2024, which is reflected in our financial guidance for double digit revenue growth. Our Project Matterhorn initiative is propelling us on our growth journey, and our team’s unwavering customer-first mindset continues to flourish as we grow our portfolio of products to meet our customers’ needs. We are also pleased to confirm that our acquisition of Regency Technologies closed in early January; this acquisition continues to build on our leadership in Asset Lifecycle Management.”

• Total reported revenues for the fourth quarter were $1.4 billion, compared with $1.3 billion in the fourth quarter of 2022, an increase of 11.0%. Excluding the impact of foreign currency exchange (“Fx”), total reported revenues increased 10.0% compared to the prior year, driven by a 12.0% increase in storage rental revenue. Service revenue growth increased 8.8% on a constant currency basis excluding the ALM business. For the full year, total reported revenues increased 7.4%, or 7.6% excluding the impact of Fx.
• Net Income for the fourth quarter was $29.2 million, compared with $125.7 million in the fourth quarter of 2022. For the full year, net income was $187.3 million, compared with $562.1 million in 2022, primarily driven by higher levels of restructuring and other transformation costs, lower gains on asset recycling as compared to the full year of 2022, and the negative impact from changes in foreign exchange rates.
• Adjusted EBITDA for the fourth quarter was $525.2 million, compared with $471.9 million in the fourth quarter of 2022, an increase of 11.3%. On a constant currency basis, Adjusted EBITDA increased by 10.3% in the fourth quarter, driven by the increase in storage rental revenue and data center commencements. On a constant currency basis, full year Adjusted EBITDA increased 7.5%.
• FFO (Normalized) per share was $0.83 for the fourth quarter, compared with $0.74 in the fourth quarter of 2022. For the full year, FFO (Normalized) per share was $3.04, compared with $2.93 in 2022, or an increase of 3.8%.
• AFFO was $327.6 million for the fourth quarter, compared with $298.5 million in the fourth quarter of 2022, an increase of 10%. For the full year, AFFO was $1.21 billion, compared with $1.15 billion in 2022, or an increase of 5%. Effective Q4 2023, our AFFO definition has been updated to exclude amortization of capitalized commissions. With this change, our calculation more accurately represents our funds available to support growth, and is more comparable to our peers, including those in the data center industry. The updated calculation has resulted in an $11.0 million increase to AFFO in the fourth quarter and a $43.4 million increase for the full year. For comparability to our previously issued financial guidance, please see the above table which includes the AFFO results based on both our updated and prior calculations.
• AFFO per share was $1.11 for the fourth quarter, compared with $1.02 in the fourth quarter of 2022. For the full year, AFFO per share was $4.12, compared with $3.93 in 2022 or an increase of 5%. Effective Q4 2023, our AFFO definition has been updated to exclude amortization of capitalized commissions. With this change, our calculation is more comparable to our peers, including those in the data center industry. The updated calculation has resulted in a $0.04 increase to AFFO per share in the fourth quarter and a $0.15 increase to AFFO per share for the full year. For comparability to our previously issued financial guidance, please see the above table which includes the AFFO per share results based on both our updated and prior calculations.

Dividend

On February 22, 2024, Iron Mountain’s Board of Directors declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.65 per share for the first quarter. The first quarter 2024 dividend is payable on April 4, 2024, for shareholders of record on March 15, 2024.

Guidance

Iron Mountain issued full year 2024 guidance; details are summarized in the table below.

About Iron Mountain

Iron Mountain Incorporated (NYSE: IRM) is a global leader in information management services. Founded in 1951 and trusted by more than 240,000 customers worldwide, Iron Mountain serves to protect and elevate the power of our customers’ work. Through a range of offerings including digital transformation, data centers, secure records storage, information management, asset lifecycle management, secure destruction and art storage and logistics, Iron Mountain helps businesses bring light to their dark data, enabling customers to unlock value and intelligence from their stored digital and physical assets at speed and with security, while helping them meet their environmental goals.

To learn more about Iron Mountain, please visit: www.IronMountain.com and follow @IronMountain on X (formerly Twitter) and LinkedIn.

Forward Looking Statements

We have made statements in this press release that constitute “forward-looking statements” as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and other securities laws. These forward-looking statements concern our current expectations regarding our future results from operations, economic performance, financial condition, goals, strategies, investment objectives, plans and achievements.

These forward-looking statements are subject to various known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, and you should not rely upon them except as statements of our present intentions and of our present expectations, which may or may not occur. When we use words such as “believes”, “expects”, “anticipates”, “estimates”, “plans”, “intends”, “projects”, “pursue”, “will” or similar expressions, we are making forward-looking statements. Although we believe that our forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, our expected results may not be achieved, and actual results may differ materially from our expectations. In addition, important factors that could cause actual results to differ from expectations include, among others: (i) our ability or inability to execute our strategic growth plan, including our ability to invest according to plan, grow our businesses (including through joint ventures or other co-investment vehicles), incorporate alternative technologies (including artificial intelligence) into our offerings, achieve satisfactory returns on new product offerings, continue our revenue management, expand and manage our global operations, complete acquisitions on satisfactory terms, integrate acquired companies efficiently and transition to more sustainable sources of energy; (ii) changes in customer preferences and demand for our storage and information management services, including as a result of the shift from paper and tape storage to alternative technologies that require less physical space; (iii) the costs of complying with and our ability to comply with laws, regulations and customer requirements, including those relating to data privacy and cybersecurity issues, as well as fire and safety and environmental standards; (iv) the impact of attacks on our internal information technology (“IT”) systems, including the impact of such incidents on our reputation and ability to compete and any litigation or disputes that may arise in connection with such incidents; (v) our ability to fund capital expenditures; (vi) the impact of our distribution requirements on our ability to execute our business plan; (vii) our ability to remain qualified for taxation as a real estate investment trust for United States federal income tax purposes; (viii) changes in the political and economic environments in the countries in which we operate and changes in the global political climate; (ix) our ability to raise debt or equity capital and changes in the cost of our debt; (x) our ability to comply with our existing debt obligations and restrictions in our debt instruments; (xi) the impact of service interruptions or equipment damage and the cost of power on our data center operations; (xii) the cost or potential liabilities associated with real estate necessary for our business; (xiii) unexpected events, including those resulting from climate change or geopolitical events, could disrupt our operations and adversely affect our reputation and results of operations; (xiv) failures to implement and manage new IT systems; (xv) other trends in competitive or economic conditions affecting our financial condition or results of operations not presently contemplated; and (xvi) the other risks described in our periodic reports filed with the SEC, including under the caption “Risk Factors” in Part I, Item 1A of our Annual Report. Except as required by law, we undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements appearing in this press release.

Reconciliation of Non-GAAP Measures

Throughout this press release, Iron Mountain discusses (1) Adjusted EBITDA, (2) Adjusted EPS, (3) FFO (Nareit), (4) FFO (Normalized), and (5) AFFO. These measures do not conform to accounting principles generally accepted in the United States (“GAAP”). These non-GAAP measures are supplemental metrics designed to enhance our disclosure and to provide additional information that we believe to be important for investors to consider in addition to, but not as a substitute for, other measures of financial performance reported in accordance with GAAP, such as operating income, net income (loss) attributable to Iron Mountain Incorporated or cash flows from operating activities (as determined in accordance with GAAP). The reconciliation of these measures to the appropriate GAAP measure, as required by Regulation G under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and their definitions are included later in this release.

Adjusted EBITDA

We define Adjusted EBITDA as net income (loss) before interest expense, net, provision (benefit) for income taxes, depreciation and amortization (inclusive of our share of Adjusted EBITDA from our unconsolidated joint ventures), and excluding certain items we do not believe to be indicative of our core operating results, specifically: (i) Acquisition and Integration Costs; (ii) Restructuring and other transformation; (iii) (Gain) loss on disposal/write-down of property, plant and equipment, net (including real estate); (iv) Other expense (income), net; and (v) Stock-based compensation expense. Adjusted EBITDA Margin is calculated by dividing Adjusted EBITDA by total revenues. We use multiples of current or projected Adjusted EBITDA in conjunction with our discounted cash flow models to determine our estimated overall enterprise valuation and to evaluate acquisition targets. We believe Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA Margin provide our current and potential investors with relevant and useful information regarding our ability to generate cash flows to support business investment. These measures are an integral part of the internal reporting system we use to assess and evaluate the operating performance of our business.

Adjusted Earnings Per Share, or Adjusted EPS

We define Adjusted EPS as reported earnings per share fully diluted from net income (loss) attributable to Iron Mountain Incorporated (inclusive of our share of adjusted losses (gains) from our unconsolidated joint ventures) and excluding certain items, specifically: (i) Acquisition and Integration Costs; (ii) Restructuring and other transformation; (iii) Amortization related to the write-off of certain customer relationship intangible assets; (iv) (Gain) loss on disposal/write-down of property, plant and equipment, net (including real estate); (v) Other expense (income), net; (vi) Stock-based compensation expense; (vii) Non-cash amortization related to derivative instruments; and (viii) Tax impact of reconciling items and discrete tax items. We do not believe these excluded items to be indicative of our ongoing operating results, and they are not considered when we are forecasting our future results. We believe Adjusted EPS is of value to our current and potential investors when comparing our results from past, present and future periods. Figures may not foot due to rounding.

Funds From Operations, or FFO (Nareit), and FFO (Normalized)

Funds from operations (“FFO”) is defined by the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts as net income (loss) excluding depreciation on real estate assets, losses and gains on sale of real estate, net of tax, and amortization of data center leased-based intangibles (“FFO (Nareit)”). We calculate our FFO measure, including FFO (Nareit), adjusting for our share of reconciling items from our unconsolidated joint ventures. FFO (Nareit) does not give effect to real estate depreciation because these amounts are computed, under GAAP, to allocate the cost of a property over its useful life. Because values for well-maintained real estate assets have historically increased or decreased based upon prevailing market conditions, we believe that FFO (Nareit) provides investors with a clearer view of our operating performance. Our most directly comparable GAAP measure to FFO (Nareit) is net income (loss).

We modify FFO (Nareit), as is common among REITs seeking to provide financial measures that most meaningfully reflect their particular business (“FFO (Normalized)”). Our definition of FFO (Normalized) excludes certain items included in FFO (Nareit) that we believe are not indicative of our core operating results, specifically: (i) Acquisition and Integration Costs; (ii) Restructuring and other transformation; (iii) (Gain) loss on disposal/write-down of property, plant and equipment, net (excluding real estate); (iv) Other expense (income) net; (v) Stock-based compensation expense; (vi) Non-cash amortization related to derivative instruments; (vii) Real estate financing lease depreciation; and (viii) Tax impact of reconciling items and discrete tax items.

FFO (Normalized) per share

FFO (Normalized) divided by weighted average fully-diluted shares outstanding.

Adjusted Funds From Operations, or AFFO

We define adjusted funds from operations (“AFFO”) as FFO (Normalized) (1) excluding (i) non-cash rent expense (income), (ii) depreciation on non-real estate assets, (iii) amortization expense associated with customer and supplier relationship value, intake costs, acquisitions of customer and supplier relationships and other intangibles, (iv) amortization of deferred financing costs and debt discount/premium, (v) revenue reduction associated with amortization of customer inducements and above- and below-market data center leases and (vi) the impact of reconciling to normalized cash taxes and (2) including recurring capital expenditures. We also adjust for these items to the extent attributable to our portion of unconsolidated ventures. We believe that AFFO, as a widely recognized measure of operations of REITs, is helpful to investors as a meaningful supplemental comparative performance measure to other REITs, including on a per share basis. AFFO should be considered in addition to, but not as a substitute for, other measures of financial performance reported in accordance with GAAP, such as operating income, net income (loss) or cash flows from operating activities (as determined in accordance with GAAP). Effective Q4 2023, our AFFO definition has been updated to exclude amortization of capitalized commissions. With this change, our calculation more accurately represents our funds available to support growth, and is more comparable to our peers, including those in the data center industry.

AFFO per share

AFFO divided by weighted average fully-diluted shares outstanding.