The ratings reflect Iron Mountain Inc.'s relatively high debt leverage, limited debt capacity for large acquisitions, and aggressive financial policies regarding its growth strategies. These factors are only partially offset by Iron Mountain's leading position as the world's largest records management company, and its reasonably stable growth from existing and new customer accounts. Iron Mountain provides warehouse storage for paper-based files, and digital file management. Iron Mountain's high debt leverage is the result of large, debt-financed acquisitions. Iron Mountain bought a large European competitor and the remaining 49.9% stake in its European subsidiary in 2003. These transactions significantly strengthened and expanded the company's presence in Europe but increased debt levels. Future acquisitions of traditional records management businesses are likely to
