The Sunday Telegraph finance editor doesnt like the idea of Mears anymore and, several weeks ago, suggested selling them -@128. Since then, they have been up to 138 and are now around the 130 mark. Since the Telegraph suggestion Fidelity Investment have stached away a 3.31% stake - as have others.All this for a share that was languishing, with others, at 58p just a wee while ago. NOW. How much are they worth? REALLY WORTH. To assess their ability to stay in business one only has to look at the average Council Executive. Reared on HIGH SALARIES and SMALL WORKLOADS their main aim is off load as much responsibilty as possible commensurate with spending extended time on the golf course and at sensible restaurants. Remember High Executives of Councils are not there with the intention of actually working themselves. Mears, therefore, is a ready made OUT for this idle,lazy band of brothers.A responsible, trustworthy, diligent and patently HONEST outfit who will assume the responsibility and afford our overloaded executive the ability to goof off for another lunch/game.YOU KNOW IT MAKES SENSE.Would anyone like to guess if I own a restaurant?

i also owned this share I bought in when IC and telegraph recommend it and after a while they drop and rise. Nothing big changes.

Nov 7 seems very good :-

Fidelity Investment = 1,869,105 shares/3.31 per cent of Company
.........................
Yahoo NOW = + 1.00/+ .78 per cent on 21,211 Volume
TODAY :- Says Short + Medium term is Bearish

Nov 6:-
4 Brokers say moderate buy,2 say hold,NONE say sell

i think the company are quite potential and profitable.

good rise today

mears figures are due shortly and there is no reason to doubt that they, once again, will satisfy the the most stringent investor. Certainly the price is sustaining - and to think that this little delight was languishing at 58p not too long ago. Maybe the announcement from MITIE will spur a further announcement from Mears and it will be interesting to note how the painting and decorating side progresses. There is so much potential in this company.

Excellent set of figures as far as I can see. What looks really good is the order book. P/e is high though, but still looks like that ideal share to have in your locker... a steady riser!!

Once again this company and its director's have excelled themselves, yet nobody on this noticeboard seems in the least interested. Investor's could have achieved a near 15% profit in the last month..but,no. NOW they are likely to miss even more as Mears embarks on its next dedicated policy -expansion by take over oF larger companies (they have been growing by adding small one's for some time).As everyone who reads this must know, I own a few of this treasure and am looking forward to it sustaining me in my old age!!

What does this company have to do to obtain the attention of the flakes who populate the MoneyAM bulletin boards? Mears had their Annual Meeting yesterday at which it was indicated that the year had opened in fine fashion, was expected to continue along similar lines and did anyone want to complain? Someone DID!!There seems to be one at every meeting. A special award for 'idiocy' should to the stockholder who objected to the issue of options to both Board members and Staff as an incentive to even greater effort. He seemd to resent the fact that 'some of these options have been issued at 10p others at 77p' His attention was drawn to the fact that these were the prevailing prices at the time of the option issue -the current price, he was informed, is 'about 180p' 'had he not made a profit?''havent you people made even MORE' was the reply. It would have been advantageous had he been removed by tactful men in white coats prepared to understand that a mature stockholder could suddenly take leave of his senses.
Fortunately Abuthnot have issued a further'buy' advice this a.m. and, thus,drawing attention to the fact that there is little to stop this one from breaching the 2.00 mark in a short time.What the recalcitrant stockholder SHOULD have been worried about was the fact that there was no one to uncork the wine bottles after the meeting!!

hilldee>>

It has got my attention don't worry about that. Did you notice back in April, shortly after the figures came out(I know it's a long time ago...but so was my last posting), that the share price rose steadily for days after. I kwew this was a really good sign as it means that the fund managers who have really poured over the figures, decided to buy big chunks... it was not just the normal knee jerk reaction from the market to a good set of figures.

The p/e looks a bit high to me now, so I took some profits at 181p, but I will definately hold the balance for the long term.

Do you have any thoughts on Connaught. Similar type of stock, good set of figures recently, full order book, lower p/e than MER. Not on as many radar screens as MER.

Regards
gk

Now, all you would be millionaires, how come you consistently miss one of the BIGGEST success stories ever. Once again Mears have excelled themselves and captured an ENORMOUS contract(over a period of years) that is going to transform the company.This has added a mere eight pence to the price, when a cold blooded assessment should have taken it to 200p. Interestingly, for 'Gallick' Connaught was one of the other companies sharing this massive contract. I repeat my comment that one of the idlest groups of CEO's in the world is to be found in those who control the spending of our numerous local authorities. Having got to the gravy they have no interest in working for their keep, so they offload all responsibility onto companies such as Mears. I leave you with the concentrating thought that these idle b......s permeate the entire local authority system and they have a network of idleness. What one discovers as a 'permit to the golf course' is quickly taken up by another.I trust some of the querulous willies out there realize just what this means for a company like Mears? In my opinion you aint heard nothin yet.

August 31 2004. The day that Mears announced yet further increases in, business,profits AND DIVIDENDS. This is a company that has delivered consistetly over its time on AIM and yet has been largely ignored by the folk who hang out in these columns. Now, I wonder why that is. Here is a company whose future, in the hands of a most able Chairman and Board, could have been traced from day one, yet most of the d...heads who post info would rather chase rainbows than take a grip on reality and place a large chunk of their worldly goods in a company that has, not yet, faltered. There aint no secret in the way it makes money. It provides excellent service, from willing employees -all of whom are well motivated and loyal -but it provides it to one of the laziest areas of money spending - Local Government. Whilst the board of Mears are out garnering more business and generally making it more profitable their 'customers' are congratulating themselves on finding such a 'treasure of a company.' Their passport to the golfclub and general idleness. Long may the combination continue.Nov 03 130p/August 04 190p Who is to complain ? Certainly not me.

Well hilldee you seem to be ploughing a lonely furrow on this BB.
I have ben a shareholder for about 3 years, my average purchase price being around 75p, so I'm quite happy up to now! Having looked at the latest results (which at first sight are good) I would caution that the rate of EPS growth for these interims compared with the second half of last year (C 10%) is much lower than that achieved between H1 and H2 2003 (C 20%). Furthermore last year's big acquisition is still making a loss, and the car delivery business has taken a downturn in revenue.
So whilst I guess I will be hanging onto my shares for the moment, we may be reaching the point where annualised EPS growth of 40% pa is no longer achieveable and maybe the meteroric rate of rise in the share price is now behind us. 2 looks a good thing in the next few days based on previous share price movements after the results. But if the EPS growth rate slows the justifiable forward PE ratio falls so maybe the shares will tread water for a while.
Smile

all justifiable remarks,Smile BUT please take into account the number of truly IDLE Chief Execs of Local Councils and the incredible amount of work still to be acquired. Mears wants to be bigger yet only has just touched the surface of this money pot. As a company they have always kept their powder dry and plenty of good news in reserve. I dont expect that to change.I must admit, though, it is good to have a cautionary word every so often, it makes me go back and prove the figures to myself and, thus, convince myself that this dream of a company is not the figment of my imagination

Why is it that, in spite of MANY representations, the Moneyam site for company results, listed under the price quote, seems chronically unable to post those for MEARS. Instead it hunts to international MER and, thus, produces info for Merrill Lynch. It DOES seem to get the charts in but nothing else. WHY ? MoneyAM ?

hilldee,

This is basically due to our supplier not being able to distinguish properly between the 2 and therfore presenting both news stories.

I will let them know that this is happening.

Ian

Thanks IanT(Moneyam) for a prompt reply. Lets hope that your questioning assisted a very nice little rise in Mears, both yesterday AND today.

The chart is beginning to look most interesting in this interesting stock. As the Chairman, Bob Holt, flies off to Australia (what could his mission be?)he gives the new man -Stuart Black - the opportunity to take the reins on Nov 15th in a quiet and unassuming manner. Already welcomed by the Local Authority community Black is expected to perform well in his new role. BUT how far will that role extend and what IS the future for one of AIM's better performers? If the chart IS to be believed, then we now have a sight of 230p and if the little birds are correct, there is ample new business to justify this price. Bob Holt has always been most conservative in his approach to acquisitions and Mears have yet to raise additional funds. But there ARE possible purchases out there and a sensibly pitched rights issue, just as these return to popularity, could prove to be the means to pitchfork Mears into the BIG time.

How sad that no one seems interested in this stock. Ticked up another 2p today to a boring old 193p It has ALL the makings of a real fortune for sensiblke investor's but then, I sense that these are few and far between on this website.
But is there ANYBODY OUT THERE who has read my little sallies over the years and has joined me in the never ending upward surge of this magnificent investment....IF SO PLEASE OWN UP. Do I have to grow rich all alone ?

Just as always, this posting will be greeted with the boredom the others have been BUT will SOMEONE admit to having invested in this miraculous little company. Starting life at 10p in '96 it is now on its way to the 230p that will represent its new resting place UNTIL IT DOES ANOTHER MAJOR DEAL AND PROPELS ITSELF FORWARD AGAIN. Come, join me Brothers. See the light. Be converted to the'new way'. Make some money, for a change. Hallelujah..come and be saved.

Hello Hilldee,

I'm not really a regular poster on money am, so excuse my failure to communicate regularly. You might find a few more posters on iii.
I'm still holding on awaiting moves upwards. Still of the view that maintaining 40% EPS growth rate will be tough especially as the business gets bigger.
How come you know Bob Holt is in Australia?
Also interested to know why you believe the chart says 230p is the next stop. I'm a bit of an astrologer with the charts but all I can see is a gradual flattening out of the graph.
Results are not due until March so methinks some news is needed to get a move before then.

Smile

I too see a gradual flattening of the graph.
I've held these for a dog's age, doing nicely as a result, but I can't see them continuing to rise at the same rate. Seriously thinking of halving my holding to ffree up funds for opportunities elsewhere.

I prefer to look at all the funds that have invested over the years. Most of them know Bob Holt well and all will have met the new incumbent CEO.Being a wily old bird I think it possible that Holt has kept his powder dry for an announcment - somewhere along the way - which will support the new guy and ensure further support.Like a joke, its all in the way you tell it !!!

its knocking on 200p...and, when its thro' that FIRST STOP 230P

Oh, what a bootiful morning. Now its one of Inv Chronicles SUPER stocks.And NONE of you would listen. Ah well, I cant put it ALL into one Bank, its too risky.

Please keep watching this little beauty.

One of the Directors - Philip Malloy - sells 255000 shares and the stock barely wobbles. Your check on the records may show that this one has disposed of stock before so, possibly, he's one of those guys with a big hole in his pants. The other Directors seem content to hunker down and make their fortunes.

There were rumors, yesterday, of a possible bid for Connaught, which - if it has nothing else - has an excellent PR outfit. Whatever the attraction in Connaught must be DOUBLED in Mears, which makes considerably higher margins (up to 33% more in some operations) The secret, not yet discovered by Connaught is in the handling, both of work AND staff. Connaught MIGHT be worth buying..but it would be even more advisable to seek success, for which you only have to look to MEARS.

There were rumors, yesterday, of a possible bid for Connaught, which - if it has nothing else - has an excellent PR outfit. Whatever the attraction in Connaught must be DOUBLED in Mears, which makes considerably higher margins (up to 33% more in some operations) The secret, not yet discovered by Connaught is in the handling, both of work AND staff. Connaught MIGHT be worth buying..but it would be even more advisable to seek success, for which you only have to look to MEARS.

A Merry Festive season to all the wise folk who have invested in the wonder stock - Mears over 2004. And a cautionary word to all those thinking of putting some money into this stock in 2005. Make sure you invest EARLY since Xmas 2005 will see this one showig a hefty gain on todays price 206p Yes, thats 206p

Can I remind you all, for 2005?

A trade of 195000, @206p as a SELL and the price rises by 2p.I did tell you to invest EARLY

Dec 29 - 206p Dec 30 - 208p Dec 31 - They are, now, paying in excess of 212P.The Malloy overhang is gone and the future looks quite bright, thank you very much.

I am told that, on another site, there has been a forecast of 276p for Dec 31.'05.

WHAT A GEM OF A STOCK

Oh Boooootiful day. 221.5p and a year ago the Telegraph thpought there was no more steam left in them @ 128p. But then they had to SELL the paper,too

Another day, another dollar - well, not quite but still a good mark up they are paying 226.5p now.

Jan 4'05 221.5
Jan 5'05 226.5
Jan17'05 238p
You could have made a turn since Xmas - but you probably all missed out.

Hi Hilldee,

Bought 1K @ 259p on 16/8 on behalf of my local share club. Hope you are still holding and as you have previously said, overall this share is a steady climber.

Hopefully this will continue over the coming months.

Regards

p+f vertical count gives a target of 291 time is not taken into account

Confirmation of what I said a couple of weeks ago that this share is a steady climber. Following the publication of the undermentioned interim results this morning the SP has risen to 272/276p.

This is a share for the bottom drawer.

Mears Group PLC
30 August 2005

MEARS GROUP

INTERIM RESULTS

CHAIRMAN'S STATEMENT


The highlights of our performance for the first half of 2005 are:

Profit before tax and goodwill amortisation up 41.8%

Social housing turnover up 51.8%

Cash inflow of 1.7m after absorbing strong growth

Contract wins valued at 220m

Order book at 960m

Normalised earnings per share pre-goodwill amortisation up 40.6%

Dividend up 40%

Watch this one to continue to gradually climb to 300p and beyond.

Tenereds

Don t often post on this one anymore - sinc e there seemed to be little enthusiasm from anyone. My latest estimates are 320p BEFORE year end. So. Thay are still worth buying and will be for a wee while yet. Congratulations, for you perspicacity, foresight and common sense, to anyone who took notice of my remarks - now so long ago. We shall grow rich together!!!!!

p+F first target is 338 for those who don`t know: p+f does not take time into account

hilldee, I have followed your musings about this company and you have been right. I bought in Nov 04 and have watched the price grow and grow. I look forward to your prediction of 320p before year end. People do read your messages but for some reason do not respond, probably too busy buying shares.

Never owned these but followed them from afar for years, this caught my eye this morning.

From Digger's post:

Directors' dealing: MEARS (Chairman Bob Holt sells 2.7 million shares at 300 pence for 8.1 mln stg)

The sale has caused a bot of a shockwave today - down over 6%. Anyone know if there was a reason given for the sale - expensive Chrimbo presents perhaps!

rgrds
gk

Any body know what is happening to this share, have held it for a long time but it seems to be drifting lower by the day?

shorted these today
will update comments later
could be wrong
regards
jkd

my only red one thus far today.
will give it another few days to decide before bailing. may have been too early.
may be wrong. may not, so just waiting.
regards
#jkd

Jkd - are you basing this purely on the chart?

s
i have no idea what this company does or what business sector it is in.
so i guess the answer to your question must be Yes.
good luck and regards
jkd

well my waiting now shows me a profit. price is now approaching a good support level so i wouldnt be surprised to see a bounce from here. unfortunately it's still too short a time and still too close to my entry point for me to feel comfortable about putting in a no cost stop loss, which i like to do as soon as possible. so i shall continue to "nurse" the position until i feel ok about placing a stop loss that i am technically happy with, and then hopefuly forget about.until i can amend it in my favour that is. i'm not there yet though. so whilst i am now in profit i do still have risk to my own capital and a possible loss here. lets wait and see. i may change my mind. i may not. please all dyor
regards
jkd

well
im still sitting. long term if this stock dont break 150 ill eat my hat. could be wrong.
in the mean time im getting ready to eat humble pie. pie today seems a tastier meal than jam hat tomorrow. still holding short. must remove these bins of mine. we shall see. please dyor
all just my opinion
regards
jkd

no pie today, maybe ill get to taste it next week,
im still short, could be wrong, we shall see.
regards
jkd

weird or what? i didnt even know results were due this week when i made the above post about tasting pie this week.
10/03/09 Record Preliminary Results( rns)
10/03/09 Mears ups dividend after record result(Mon AM)
11/03/09 Broker News- Mears upgraded to add from hold at... (Mon AM )
it seems i must be batting on a sticky wicket here.
note to self. i'm clearly going to be wrong on this one, dont swim against the tide.
not going to be stubborn here, whether it is the tide of news and sentiment or tide of price. its nice when they all flow together but so often they dont. so i will go with tide of PRICE. another note to self. be careful. be patient.(i'm still short) until Price or money management tells me to be other than short. its turning into a volatile beeste recently.its very oversold and could easily bounce back to the 270/275 level suggested by the broker.
might not. anyone buying here and seeing it move up to that level may find it difficult to unbelieve and sell on a subsequent fall.those are the long term investors who will still be holding when and if the fall out occurs.it may never happen. if this then that etc. anyway for the moment i hold short but could be wrong so have a stop loss in place to protect me.
as always this is all just my opinion.
good luck
regards
jkd

crikey!
time for a no loss stop loss. ill be very disappointed if it gets hit, could happen.
time to stop watching methinks.
regards
jkd

i've been stopped out of half my holding today. still holding the balance. thank goodness for stop losses. at least i've managed to bank some profit.
regards
jkd

http://www.moneyam.com/action/news/showArticle?id=3596722

i've been stopped out of my remaining holding today, now flat.
regards
jkd

Mears announces 70m new contract wins.

Mears wins 200m Brighton housing contract
Business Financial Newswire
Support services group Mears has won a ten-year 200m contract from Brighton & Hove City Council to provide housing stock upgrades, repairs and maintenance services.

CEO Bob Holt said, 'I believe this to be one of the largest contracts of its kind awarded in the UK ever and represents a significant move to a long-term partnership for Brighton & Hove.'

Mears has won contracts worth a total of 400m since April and has a strong pipeline of bids, said Holt.

i'm getting ready to short.
regards
jkd

Results well received!

Interim management Statement.

Trading update

Mears has continued to experience strong trading across all divisions since announcing the interim results in August 2009. The forecast full year results are in line with management's expectations.

The Group has announced new contract awards in excess of 450m since the annual results were published on 10 March 2009 and we continue to build on this strong performance with an order book standing at over 1.7bn. The bid pipeline is strong and we are currently at advanced stages of negotiating further significant opportunities. We anticipate reporting a record year for growth in our order book.

The demand for our services has never been stronger. Our two growth markets Social Housing and Domiciliary Care, which account for approaching 90% of Group revenues, are defensive markets where spend is largely non discretionary and afford us substantial immunity from bad debts. Moreover as a result of our quality partnership relationships with first class public sector customers, we have not experienced any work delays from our public sector customers.

New Contracts.

Mears is pleased to announce the award of new contracts across all three
operating divisions.


The awards have an initial value of GBP113 million and are subject to contract
extensions taking the total worth to in excess of GBP200 million. This takes the
aggregate total of new contracts awarded in the nine months since Mears
announced its preliminary results to in excess of GBP550 million with a
potential worth in excess of GBP650 million, subject to contract extensions,
which would result in a record year for the Group in terms of both new contract
awards and order book.

bought in this morning...looks good

Offer for Supporta plc

Summary of the Offer

The boards of Mears and Supporta are today pleased to announce that they have reached agreement on the terms of a recommended offer by Mears to acquire the entire issued and to be issued share capital of Supporta.
The Offer will be on the basis of 0.115 New Mears Shares for each Supporta Share.
The Offer values the entire issued and to be issued share capital of Supporta at approximately 27.2 million and each Supporta Share at 31 pence (based on the Closing Price of 269.5 pence per Mears Share on 17 December 2009), representing a premium of 55 per cent. to the Closing Price of 20 pence per Supporta Share on 28 October 2009 (being the last business day prior to the commencement of the Offer Period).
If the Offer is declared unconditional in all respects, Mears will issue up to 10,088,670 New Mears Shares giving Supporta Shareholders up to 11.94 per cent. of the Enlarged Issued Share Capital.
The acquisition of Supporta will, inter alia, provide Mears' Domiciliary Care division with increased scale and thus enable Mears to pursue further, larger and more comprehensive contracts, particularly given Local Authorities are increasingly seeking to reduce the number of providers for outsourced services.
The Supporta Directors, who have been so advised by Brewin Dolphin, consider the terms of the Offer to be fair and reasonable. In providing advice to the Supporta Directors, Brewin Dolphin has taken into account the Supporta Directors' commercial assessment of the Offer. The Supporta Directors intend to recommend unanimously that Supporta Shareholders accept the Offer as the Supporta Directors have irrevocably undertaken to do so in respect of their own beneficial holdings in Supporta comprising, in aggregate, 620,000 Supporta Shares, representing in aggregate approximately 0.72 per cent. of the existing issued share capital of Supporta.
In addition, Mears has received irrevocable undertakings to accept, or procure the acceptance of, the Offer from certain other Supporta Shareholders in respect of, in aggregate, 29,508,122 Supporta Shares, representing approximately 34.13 per cent. of Supporta's entire existing issued share capital. Accordingly, Mears has received irrevocable undertakings to accept, or procure the acceptance of, the Offer in respect of, in aggregate, 30,128,122 Supporta Shares, representing approximately 34.85 per cent. of Supporta's entire existing issued share capital.

Pre-Close Trading Update

RNS Number : 2293F
Mears Group PLC
08 January 2010

8 January 2010

Mears Group PLC
("Mears" or "the Group")

Pre-Close Trading Update

Mears is pleased to announce that it expects to report another successful
trading outcome for the year ended 31 December 2009 with particular focus on
its robust management of working capital with strong cash conversion of
operating profit.

The Group has already secured 75 per cent of its consensus forecast revenues for
2010 and the forward order book stands at GBP1.8 billion. Mears has previously
announced new contract awards in 2009 of in excess of GBP550 million with a
potential worth in excess of GBP650 million, subject to contract extensions.
This will result in a record year for the Group in terms of both new contract
awards and order book level. The bid pipeline continues to be strong and the
Group is currently at advanced stages of negotiating further significant
opportunities.

Commenting, Bob Holt, Chairman of Mears, said:

"I am delighted with the progress made across the Group during 2009,
particularly with our achievements in continuing to build a successful care
provision along side our social housing services.

The demand for our services has never been stronger. Our two growth markets
Social Housing and Domiciliary Care, which together account for approaching 90%
of Group revenues, are defensive markets where spend is largely non
discretionary and afford us substantial immunity from bad debts. Moreover as a
result of our quality partnership relationships with public sector customers, we
have not experienced any work delays in the areas in which we operate".

The Group will be announcing its preliminary results for the year ended 31
December 2009 on Tuesday 9 March 2010.

Excellent trading update..very happy with my Dec bought investment in MER...hopefully this'll continue to strengthen gradually to 330p+ over the coming months :-)

Nice bounce yesterday and today - Arbuthnot reiterated its 340p target.

Cool!...onwards & upwards from here! 335p will do me!

Final Results.

Summary of Operations and Outlook

Financial:

Major tender successes, with record contract wins valued at over 650m in the last twelve months.
Group operating margin increased to 5.3%.
Operating profit to cash conversion at 108.7%.
Strong balance sheet with net funds of 6.5m.
New bank facility for the enlarged Group committed of 85m until June 2013.
Dividend increased by 20%.

bought some more this morning..hoping for a 30% gradual re-rating in the sp from here in the coming months. (imho)

Nice RNS this morning.....

Mears Group PLC
("Mears" or "the Group")

GBP170m Contract with London Borough of Lambeth
Repairs, Maintenance and Improvement Partnership

Mears is pleased to announce that, subject to leaseholder consultation, the
London Borough of Lambeth intend to award a long-term partnership contract to
provide responsive repairs, void refurbishment, estate management, decent
homes and planned maintenance. The contract relates to the North housing region
which includes around 8,000 of the 20,100 tenanted homes within Lambeth.

The 7 year contract; (with an extension of up to a further 3 years dependant on
performance) is valued at GBP170 million (including extension) and is expected
to commence in October 2010.

Mears Group PLC
("Mears" or "the Group")

GBP300million Partnership Contract
with Family Mosaic Housing Association ("Family Mosaic")


Mears is pleased to announce that it has been notified today by Family Mosaic
that they have agreed, subject to the completion of the standstill period, to
appoint Mears as preferred bidder. The value of the award is GBP300 million for
a ten year period. The contract relates to more than 20,000 homes in London and
the Home Counties and is expected to commence in October 2010.

Mears, as the principle partner will provide a single 24 hour call centre
service for all tenants of Family Mosaic and be responsible for responsive,
void, gas maintenance, property surveying and estates management services.

Family Mosaic is a current client of Mears and is one of the largest Registered
Social Landlords in the UK, providing homes and housing services to around
45,000 people in over 20,000 homes across London and the Home Counties. Family
Mosaic offers a diverse range of housing and support related services including;
general needs housing, sheltered housing, housing with extra support, a
temporary housing department, leasehold management and a tenant support service.

Interim Management Statement.

Mears today releases its Interim Management Statement ("IMS") for the period from 1 January 2010 to date.

Continued strong trading across all the Group's divisions;

Over 500 million of new contract awards in Social Housing;

9 new contract awards in domiciliary care;

Integration of the Supporta acquisition is well advanced.

Trading update

Mears is continuing to deliver strong trading across all divisions.

Since publication of our final results on 9 March 2010 for the year to 31 December 2009, we have announced contract wins of over 500 million in Social Housing and a bid pipeline which still remains in excess of 3 billion. The order book currently stands at 2.5 billion with secured revenues of 91% of consensus forecast for the current year and 77% for 2011.

Just fell off a cliff and in auction.

Stmnt re Share Price Movement



TIDMMER

RNS Number : 3064O
Mears Group PLC
28 June 2010

?

28 June 2010
Mears Group PLC
("Mears" or "the Company" or "the Group")

Further Response re: Price Movement

Following the brief statement made by Mears after the market closed on Friday 25
June the Company is pleased to reiterate that it is continuing to deliver strong
trading across all divisions and is not experiencing any downward pressure on
spend in its social housing business. Current trading and strong cash conversion
for the year are in line with management expectations.

In summary:

� Continuing to deliver strong trading across all divisions
� No evidence or experience of downward pressure in spending in social
housing which remains a largely secure and non-discretionary spend
� GBP2.5 billion order book and GBP3 billion bid pipeline
� Winning longer term agreements with Local Authorities and RSLs
� Secured revenues of 91% of consensus forecast for the current year
� Strong focus on cash conversion.

Commenting, Bob Holt, Chairman of Mears Group, said:
"I believe that Mears will now be considered market leader in social housing
repair and maintenance which will add further to an already unprecedented level
of opportunity within the public sector. Local Authority clients continue to
consider more innovative and higher scale partnerships which is already
evidenced this year with major contract wins.

"The quality of our operational delivery and our people underpins our strategy
and continues to give us clear competitive advantage as evidenced by our
enhanced reputation both in terms of the winning of new business and the
recruitment and retention of key personnel. These factors are central in
maintaining a robust revenue stream with our existing client base whilst
providing significant opportunity within our bid pipeline."

ends.

These look well oversold having been dragged down by Connaughts profit warning.

Brokers now queing up to give a BUY rating.......... (from hemscott premium)

a forward P/E of just 8.6 to 2011, derd cheap for a quality company like this..

Mears Group PLC

FORECASTS 2010 2011
Date Rec Pre-tax () EPS (p) DPS (p) Pre-tax () EPS (p) DPS (p)

Execution Noble
12-07-10 BUY 30.50 24.50 6.50 34.70 27.50 7.10

Panmure Gordon
12-07-10 HOLD 30.40 25.30 6.33 35.10 29.00 6.96

KBC Peel Hunt Ltd
09-07-10 BUY 31.33 25.79 6.50 38.09 30.05 7.50

Arden Partners
09-07-10 BUY 30.70 26.30 6.50 35.00 28.60 7.30

Brewin Dolphin
09-07-10 BUY 30.00 24.20 6.30 34.30 26.90 6.90

The Royal Bank of Scotland NV
08-07-10 BUY 30.41 24.52 6.50 34.82 27.52 7.20

Investec Securities
24-06-10 BUY 30.54 24.69 6.56 34.78 27.58 7.54

Altium Securities
28-05-10 HOLD 29.40 23.50 6.30 34.10 27.00 7.30

Collins Stewart
13-05-10 BUY 30.30 24.40 35.00 27.70

Numis Securities Ltd
11-05-10 HOLD 31.00 25.00 6.70 35.00 27.70 7.90

2010 2011
Pre-tax () EPS (p) DPS (p) Pre-tax () EPS (p) DPS (p)

Consensus 30.42 24.69 6.47 34.85 27.77 7.31

1 Month Change -0.06 -0.02 0.00 0.09 -0.08 -0.05
3 Month Change -0.15 -0.04 -0.06 -0.51 -0.10 -0.05


GROWTH
2009 (A) 2010 (E) 2011 (E)

Norm. EPS 6.62% 36.49% 12.51%
DPS 17.65% 29.48% 12.96%

INVESTMENT RATIOS
2009 (A) 2010 (E) 2011 (E)

EBITDA 27.25m 35.26m 39.62m

EBIT 19.89m m m

Dividend Yield 2.08% 2.69% 3.03%

Dividend Cover 3.62x 3.81x 3.80x

PER 13.32x 9.76x 8.68x

PEG 2.01f 0.27f 0.69f

Net Asset Value PS 44.72p 161.54p 173.46p

brokers must have a load of shares to get rid of beware perhaps profit warning coming up.

Mears Group PLC
("Mears" or "the Group")

Disposal of Datacare Business Systems Limited ("Datacare")

Mears today announces the disposal of Datacare to Mavinwood plc generating net
proceeds of GBP1.0m. Datacare was acquired earlier this year as part of the
Supporta plc acquisition. At the time Mears acquired Datacare, the Group stated
it would conduct a review of the business to determine whether it formed a part
of Mears' long term strategy. Following this review, it was determined that
Datacare is not core to the Group's strategy.

Strategic Partnership with British Gas Trading Limited ("British Gas")


Mears announces that it has today entered into a Strategic Partnership ("Partnership") with British Gas to jointly address the challenges of energy efficiency within the social housing sector.

Looks like good news...lots of ifs and buts and it depends on the economy doing well and government spending controls etc... market reacting pos+ at the moment hope it continues!

Interim management Statement.

Key Highlights since 1 July 2010
Group order book of 2.6 billion with unprecedented forward visibility approaching 90% of consensus forecast revenues for 2011 and 75% for 2012.

New contracts awarded in 2010 to-date total 1 billion (including extensions).

Transformational year for Mears. Consolidation of market leading position in both core growth markets of Social Housing and Domiciliary Care.

Exceptional opportunities in both core growth markets.

Government Spending Review is positive for Mears.

Trading in line with management expectations before the mobilisation costs of several new contracts to be mobilised close to year end.

New contracts awarded to the Group's Social Housing Division to the value of 68 million (145 million including extensions).

Mobilisation of the 300 million Family Mosaic contract, delivering services to more than 20,000 homes throughout London.

Acquisition of Jackson Lloyd Limited, which operates social housing maintenance contracts in the North West of England.

Announced British Gas Strategic Partnership to target funding opportunities under the Carbon Emissions Reduction Target (CERT) and the Community Energy Savings Programme (CESP) within Mears' existing and growing Social Housing client base.

New Domiciliary Care contract awards estimated to be worth in the region of 12 million over an average period of 4 years.

Group bid pipeline in excess of 3.0 billion underpins the Board's confidence in the future.

Pre-close Trading Update.

Trading Statement

Mears is delighted to report that trading for the year ended 31 December 2010 across all divisions was in line with management expectations.

During a particularly busy period of new contract mobilisations in the fourth quarter of the year, the Group has maintained its robust working capital management with strong profit to cash conversion.

Our bid pipeline remains robust at 3 billion and further new contract successes have increased the Group's order book to 2.7 billion providing unprecedented forward visibility of consensus forecast revenues for 2011 of in excess of 90% and approaching 80% for 2012.

The Group will be announcing its preliminary results for the year ended 31 December 2010 on Tuesday, 15 March 2011.

It all looks solid. Hopefully we'll see 3.5p in the next 4-6 months!

Nice progress today....showing 13% profit so far on my initial outlay...looking for 350p+ in the next few months! but will hold for larger gains on a 2yr view (imho)

SP continuing to climb...nice!

ive already eaten my hat.
regards
jkd

bought a few more today....it looks as though it's hit the bottom of it's trading range so it's onwards and upwards! (imho

Just had a small punt here - IMS next Monday (I believe) and a recent upgrade by Peel Hunt - Tp 3.

Interim Management Statement.

Trading update

-- Mears continues to deliver solid trading across all divisions in line with management expectations.

-- GBP120 million of new contract awards since publication in March of the final results for the year to 31 December 2010, which include:

o GBP52 million 10 year repair and maintenance contract with Bedfordshire Pilgrims Housing Association

o Additional repair and maintenance contracts totalling GBP30 million over an average of 4 year terms, including Dover District Council and Leeds City Council

o Mears awarded its first in-sourcing solutions contract with Epping Forest District Council to provide support to their Direct Labour Organisation

o Several new Domiciliary Care contracts ranging from two to five years in duration with an estimated aggregate value of GBP37 million over their lifetime

o A GBP4 million, three year contract for the Home Improvement Agency service provided by Gloucestershire County Council.

-- British Gas partnership developing well - environmental works already commenced across two Registered Social customers.

-- Roll-out of the Mears Care IT system commenced in April and remains on track.

-- Mears order book currently stands at GBP2.7 billion with secured revenues in excess of 93% of the GBP620 million consensus revenue forecast for the current year and in excess of 80% of the GBP667 million consensus revenue forecast for 2012.

SP down! but not for long I hope.

AGM Statement.

Half Yearly Report.


Financial Highlights Six months Six months Change
to 30 June to 30 June
2011 2010
Revenue GBP292.6m GBP252.6m up 16%
Adjusted operating profit* GBP15.2m GBP14.6m up 4%
Adjusted profit before tax* GBP14.1m GBP13.2m up 7%
Diluted EPS 8.97p 5.73p up 57%
Normalised diluted EPS** 11.42p 10.80p up 6%
Dividend per share 2.15p 1.90p up 13%

I'm still in with this one....looking for 3.40ish in the next 6months...my guess is that'll start moving up as we get to the next trading update/results early next year (imho)

One of my favourites for about 10 years

Interim Management Statement.

Mears has today brought forward the release of its Interim Management Statement ("IMS") for the period from 1 July 2011 to date.

Key Highlights since 1 July 2011:

The Group is continuing to experience solid trading within the activities of both its core divisions of Social Housing and Care.

Group order book of 2.7 billion with secured revenues of 95% of current consensus forecast revenues for 2011, 85% for 2012 and 70% for 2013.

New contracts awarded and announced today in respect of the Group's Social Housing Division to the value of 109 million (180 million including extensions). This increases the value of social housing new contracts awarded in the last eight months to 350 million (423 million including extensions). The Group continues to achieve high new tender conversion rates of 47% and 62% in Social Housing and Care respectively

Group bid pipeline remains in excess of 3.0 billion, and with an immediate bidding opportunity of 1.6 billion, continues to underpin the Board's confidence in the future.

The Government announced their decision on the 31 October 2011 to halve the solar Photovoltaic (PV) Feed-in Tariff (FIT) subsidy from 12 December 2011, which came as a surprise to many participants in the PV space. Since the decision to substantially reduce the PV FIT, and more importantly to bring forward the effective date, the Board has been evaluating the business case for PV and conclude that the prudent course of action is to cease these activities immediately, as the commercial attractions that led us to explore the PV space, in the short term, no longer exist. As a direct result, Operating Profit is likely to fall short of our previous expectations in the region of 2.8 million for the current year. In addition we believe it appropriate to write-off costs relating to the site set-up, system design and installation amounting to approximately 2.0 million which are now considered irrecoverable. The latter amount will be treated as a non-recurring item and excluded from the Group's normalised earnings calculations in the full year results.

In September the Group completed a refinancing of its banking facilities and signed a new 120 million unsecured facility maturing in July 2016. This new arrangement replaces the previous 85 million secured facility and includes lower debt pricing and higher operational flexibility.

The Group completed the acquisition of the Supported Living division of Choices Care Community Services Limited ('Choices') as the first step in our strategy to develop a broader care offering to our clients. The period since acquisition has proceeded well and the Group anticipates the acquisition being earnings enhancing for the year ending 31 December 2012.

Mears has signed a strategic partnering arrangement with the Tunstall Group. The partnership has already secured a contract with Birmingham Council, which has a large programme to roll out telecare and telehealth systems across the City. The partnership is well placed to benefit further from these opportunities.

very disappointed with this....I've sold out and gone in on CKSN as a recovery play.

Will keep any eye on MER and may come back in in the new year.
I think it's only a temporaryset-back but can onlyt see the sp teading water over the next few months! (imho)
Think in a year or two the sp will be back at 3

INVESCO > 5%

Heronbridge > 4%

Back on the watchlist.

Excellent candle , volume and RSI - mind the gap !

Only me then - just close half @240.

Pre-Close Trading Update.

Mears can confirm that trading and cash for the year ended 31 December 2011 was in line with management expectations.

New contract successes have increased the Group's order book to £2.8 billion providing forward visibility of consensus forecast revenues of 93% for 2012 and 78% for 2013. Our bid pipeline remains robust at in excess of £3.0 billion with the immediate bidding opportunity for further contracts due to start over the course of 2012 at £1.1 billion.

The Group will be announcing its preliminary results for the year ended 31 December 2011 on Tuesday, 20 March 2011.

Gap closed (ish)

Final Results.

Summary of Operations and Outlook

Financial:
· Excellent year of new contract bidding. Awards in excess of £700m with conversion rate of 45%
· Record revenue of £589.0m (2010: £523.9m), growth of 12%
· Profit to cash conversion at 91% (2010: 97%).
· Strong balance sheet with average net debt £58.5m (2010: £48.5m), and net debt at 31 December of £13.4m (2010: £12.2m)
· Bank facility for the Group of £120m committed until July 2016.
· Progressive dividend policy, dividend increasing in line with earnings by 11% to 7.50p per share (2010: 6.75p).

Social Housing Division:
· Record revenue of £415.0m (2010: £379.4m), growth of 9%.
· Growth in core maintenance revenue, up 21% including organic growth of 14%
· Continuing high levels of customer satisfaction
· Operating margin remains at market leading levels of 5.8% (2010: 6.0%)

Care Division:
· Revenue increased by 8% to £108.5m (2010: £100.4m)
· Operating margin increased to 8.0% (2010: 7.5%).
· Successful integration of earnings enhancing Supported Living acquisition
· Care operation maintained very strong regulatory compliance

Outlook:
· Significant pipeline of new bidding opportunities over the next 12 months
· Visibility of 94% of consensus forecast revenue for 2012 and 80% for 2013.
· Ageing demographics and current fiscal challenges provide significant opportunities for Mears
· Targeting acquisitions in both core growth markets
· Continued roll-out of proprietary care IT system.

Investec reiterates it's Buy TP 283p

Collins Stewart reiterates it's Buy TP 325p

Peel Hunt reiterates it's Buy TP 275p

Panmure Gordon reiterates it's Hold TP 250p

Jefferies International reiterates it's Buy TP 310p

N+1 Brewin reiterates it's Add TP 275p

Espirito Santo Execution Noble reiterates Neutral TP 260p

RNS Number : 9248Z

Mears Group PLC

23 March 2012

23 March 2012

Mears Group PLC

("Mears" or the "Company")

Notification of Transactions of Directors/Persons Discharging Managerial Responsibility and Connected Persons in accordance with DTR 3.1.2 R

The Company was notified on 22 March 2012 that Robert (Bob) Holt, Chairman of Mears, had exercised share options over 1,500,000 ordinary shares of one pence each in the Company ("Ordinary Shares") on 22 March 2012.

Exercise of options under Mears Group PLC Special Incentive Plan ("SIP"):


Number of Ordinary Exercise price
Shares over which per Ordinary
Date of grant options were exercised Share (pence)
28 September 2009 1,500,000 1

Interim Management Statement

97% visibility of consensus forecast revenues for 2012 and

80% visibility for 2013

Mears today releases its Interim Management Statement ("IMS") for the period from 1 January 2012 to date.

Mears continues to deliver solid trading across all divisions in line with management expectations.

We have now achieved 100% visibility of forecast consensus revenues in Social Housing for the current year. For the Group as a whole, we have visibility of 97% of consensus forecast revenues for the current year and have in excess of 80% visibility of Group forecast consensus revenues for 2013. The order book currently stands at GBP2.8 billion and the bid pipeline remains in excess of GBP3.0 billion with the immediate bidding opportunity for new contracts due to start on or before April 2013 at approximately GBP2.0 billion.

Social Housing

Since 1 January 2012, we have seen the most intense period of new contract mobilisation in the Group's history with the commencement of eight new social housing contracts. These new contracts have started well, and as stated in the March preliminary announcement, these will generate additional costs in the early mobilisation phase, which are all expensed in the period. The overall strength of our social housing business means that despite these costs and the effect of the final wind-down of the Decent Homes works, we still anticipate a solid social housing operating margin.

Care and Support

The division has successfully mobilised a number of new contracts during the period since 1 January 2012. A change in the sales mix as we deliver more acute services provides an opportunity to strengthen and enhance our operating profit margin. While we remain selective with new contract bidding, we see a number of opportunities which fit our bidding criteria and which can provide further opportunities for growth. We remain mindful of getting the right balance between growing our top line whilst at all times protecting our operating margin

Other Services

Mears' Other Services accounted for less than 4% of Group operating profit in 2011 and predominantly comprises our Mechanical & Electrical operation. Trading within the division continues to encounter challenging conditions with the trading environment remaining highly competitive. We do not anticipate a significant profit contribution from this division in the current year.

Financial position

Mears continues to benefit from a strong balance sheet. The efficiency with which the Group manages working capital has always been a cornerstone of our business, which is of particular importance during the current period of strong organic growth.

Commenting, David Miles, Chief Executive, Mears Group, said:

"I am delighted at the progress made by the Group in recent months. We have demonstrated our ability to embrace change and adapt to the challenges that the current economic environment continues to present. Mears' positive momentum positions us well to benefit from an active contract bidding market. I remain confident in the prospects for the future growth of the Group.

"Our Social Housing business has long been recognised as the market leader in terms of operational performance and tenant satisfaction. Our differentiated offering focussed on quality of service is providing now, more than ever, opportunities to further reinforce our position as the partner of choice for customers seeking solutions to important and significant underlying needs.

"I am proud of our achievements in the care sector and our ability to offer vulnerable people high quality services. Moreover, we are achieving strong margins in what remains a complex politically-led market. We continue to seek acquisitions to broaden our care offerings where appropriate. The well documented challenges in the care market are likely to accelerate in 2012, and Mears continues to be at the forefront of seeking pragmatic solutions to these challenges and I remain very positive of our future role in the care market. It is disappointing that the Social Care white paper has once again been delayed. It would appear that the challenge for the long term funding of Care is unlikely to now be addressed in legislation before the back end of 2013. The political debate cannot be one of simply mindlessly reducing spend and ignoring new sources of funding, but rather one which seeks to deliver long term joined-up good value services to an increasingly important section of society."

Ends.

An good interview with David Miles about the results and includes the results presentation - Link to interview

Interim Management Statement

Canaccord Genuity Buy 369.25 440.00 440.00 Reiterates

Liberum Capital Buy 369.25 420.00 420.00 Reiterates

Investec Buy 369.25 400.00 400.00 Reiterates

Espirito Santo Execution Noble Neutral 369.25 350.00 350.00 Retains

AGM Statement

Mears issued its Interim Management Statement on 14 May 2013. I am pleased to announce that the positive trends referred to in the May statement are continuing and are summarised as follows:

· Mears continues to deliver solid trading across both core divisions in line with management expectations.

· Mears has secured new contract awards since 1 January 2013 of circa £125 million. In addition the Group has experienced strong spends from its existing customer base and has achieved 95% visibility of the £915m consensus revenue forecast for 2013 and 80% visibility of the £960m consensus revenue forecast for 2014. The order book stands at £3.8 billion and the bid pipeline remains at £3.0 billion.

· Following the acquisition of Morrison Facilities Services Limited, the Group has reached an advanced stage in the restructuring of the senior operational management and social housing support functions. The integration is substantially complete. We anticipate that the Morrison operations will deliver a break-even result for the half-year before the exceptional cost of integration. The speed of this turnaround is ahead of our original expectation.

· Mears continues to benefit from a strong balance sheet.

Half Yearly Report

Financial:
· Revenue increased by 49%.
· EBITA to cash conversion at 100% (2012: 100%) for the rolling 12 month period to June 2013.
· Strong Balance sheet.

Social Housing Division:
· Revenues grew by 76%, including strong organic growth of 17% to £378.9m (£215.0m).
· Operating margin delivered at 3.7% - a blend of a Mears margin at 5.6% (2012: 5.0%) and Morrison at break-even.

Care Division:
· Revenue increased by 8% to £60.5m (2012: £56.1m) as a result of the acquisition of ILS.
· Operating margin maintained at 8.1% (2012: 8.1%).
· Acquisition of ILS enhances our higher acuity care offering.

Group Outlook:
· Order book of £3.8 billion (2012: £2.7 billion). Solid pipeline of new opportunities.
· Full visibility of consensus forecast revenue for 2013 and in excess of 85% for 2014.
· Two new infill acquisitions to develop further our housing management offering.

Canaccord Genuity Buy 420.13 430.25 440.00 490.00 Reiterates

Investec Buy 417.63 400.00 440.00 Reiterates

Liberum Capital Buy 416.13 413.00 420.00 485.00 Reiterates

Interim Management Statement

Proposed Disposal of M&E Division

Looking at a new high @441.50p.

Trading Statement in January.

Pre-Close Trading Update

Trading Statement
Mears anticipates reporting results for the full year to 31 December 2013 in line with management expectations, coupled with strong cash performance.

The current order book stands at £3.8 billion and the bid pipeline remains at £3.0 billion. The Group has 90% visibility of consensus revenue forecast for 2014 from continuing operations of £911 million.

Integration of Morrison Facilities Services Limited ("Morrison")

Mears acquired Morrison in November 2012 and has previously reported that the speed of turnaround has exceeded management expectations and this continues. The integration of the support service functions was completed in the first half year and the migration to the Mears IT systems is substantially complete. Morrison has delivered a positive contribution in the year. The key focus is now at an individual contract level to maintain the improved service delivery whilst continuing to resolve the remaining financial challenges.

Disposal of Mechanical and Electrical division ("Haydon")

Mears completed the disposal of Haydon in November 2013. The disposal has allowed the Board to focus fully upon its core and growing Social Housing and Care businesses. The division continued to generate losses up to its disposal which will be shown under Discontinued Activities in the full-year results.

Developing the Care market - Wiltshire County Council ('Wiltshire')

As previously announced, the award by Wiltshire of an innovative partnering contract to Mears represented our most important milestone since entering into Care and an important development in the Domiciliary Care market in the UK. In a move away from traditional "task and time" based contracts, Mears will be paid by results, which pays providers on meeting desired outcomes that have been agreed directly with service users. That Mears was awarded this landmark contract demonstrates Mears' leading position in the Domiciliary Care market. The contract, which mobilised in September 2013, has started positively.

While still early days, there are indications now that a number of other Local Authorities are looking to follow the lead of Wiltshire. It will be particularly beneficial to Mears that Wiltshire is a strong reference site to support the Group securing other similar opportunities.

ILS Group Limited ('ILS')

In April 2013, Mears announced the acquisition of ILS. One of the principal attractions of ILS was its greater proportion of work providing higher acuity services and which is now being delivered through the Mears Nurseplus brand. It is pleasing to report that we have continued to achieve strong growth in this area.

Financial position

Mears continues to benefit from a strong balance sheet. The efficiency with which the Group manages working capital continues to be a cornerstone of the business as evidenced by net debt being less than management expectations as at 31 December 2013. The Group has extended its existing revolving credit facility of £120 million by a further 2 years to July 2018.



Commenting, David Miles, Chief Executive, Mears Group, said:

"I am delighted with the progress Mears has made in 2013. Revenue visibility, order book and the bid pipeline all remain strong.

"The UK Care market is going through a period of significant change and I am proud of the robust business we have established. Mears will continue to be at the forefront of change in the sector in 2014 and beyond.

"With Mears now focussed solely on Social Housing and Domiciliary Care, I am delighted to report that we continue to achieve high levels of service delivery and customer satisfaction. The quality of our service delivery continues to be our key differentiator and underpins our success in bidding new contracts in both of our core growth sectors."


The Group will be announcing its results for the year ended 31 December 2013 on 18 March 2014.


-ENDS-

Investec Add 478.38 479.25 440.00 495.00 Downgrades

Liberum Capital Buy 479.63 478.00 - 528.00 Reiterates

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/social-housing-landlords-cheated-by-repair-firm-mears-group-tribunal-hears-9085454.html

Pop!

FIL Limited > 5%

Final Results

Financial Highlights
· Record revenue of £898.2m (2012: £679.5m), growth of 32%
· Profit before tax of £36.6m (2012: £29.0m), growth of 26%
· Excellent EBITDA cash conversion of 103% (2012: 108%)
· New contract wins in excess of £500m: Social Housing awards of £420m with a conversion rate of 32% (2012: £380m and 32%) and Care awards of £96m with a conversion rate of 69% (2012: £63m and 57%)
· Strong balance sheet with average net debt of £70.0m (2012: £75.0m), and net debt at 31 December of £0.5m (2012: £12.4m)
· Progressive dividend policy, increasing by 10%, in line with earnings, to 8.80p per share (2012: 8.00p)
· Loss on disposal (non-cash item) from M&E business of £18.5m in line with expectations.

Interim Management Statement

Mears Group PLC (LSE: MER), the provider of services to the Social Housing and Care sectors in the UK, today releases its Interim Management Statement ("IMS") for the period from 1 January 2014 to date.

Mears continues to deliver solid trading across both core divisions in line with management expectations.

Mears has secured new contract awards since 1 January 2014 of circa £110 million. The Group has now achieved 94% visibility of the £908 million consensus revenue forecast for 2014 and 72% visibility of the £960 million consensus revenue forecast for 2015. The order book stands at £3.8 billion with a bid pipeline of £3.0 billion.

Business Development

We have continued to make solid progress in our Social Housing division having secured a 10 year contract with Medway Housing worth £40 million. In aggregate, Mears has secured new social housing contracts since 1 January 2014 amounting to £70 million. While the speed of new opportunities coming through has been slower than we anticipated, the bid pipeline remains unchanged at £3.0 billion.

Our Care business has progressed strongly. We have secured a number of important domiciliary care contracts, especially in Scotland on the back of our ILS acquisition, including a £20 million contract over four years with Stirling and Clackmannanshire and separate three year contracts with West Lothian and East Lothian worth £2.5 million each. In aggregate, Mears has secured new Care contracts since 1 January 2014 amounting to £40 million.

Developing our higher acuity offering

Complex care represents 14% of our total Care revenues, having doubled over the last three years. Since 1 January 2014, these activities have continued to make strong progress. We have made further investment in the structure of our higher acuity Nurseplus business and we will continue to target this area to drive growth. Particularly pleasing is that we have secured our first Nurseplus work in Southern England, through our Wiltshire County Council ('Wiltshire') contract. We have a strong pipeline of future higher acuity opportunities across the whole of the UK.

Developing the Care market

As previously reported, the award by Wiltshire of an innovative partnering contract to Mears represents one of our most important milestones since entering into the Care sector and an important development in the Care market in the UK. In a move away from traditional 'task and time' based contracts, Mears is paid by results, based upon meeting desired outcomes that have been agreed directly with service users. This change in commissioning is central to the Group's strategy and we are well positioned, as a high quality business focused upon service delivery, to benefit from this market change. We are pleased to report a number of opportunities in the pipeline are now following outcome based approaches similar to the stance taken by Wiltshire. The Wiltshire contract, which mobilised in September 2013, has continued to develop positively.

Financial position

Mears continues to benefit from financial strength and the efficiency with which the Group manages working capital continues to be a focus of the business. The Group's revolving credit facility of £120 million is committed until July 2018 and provides sufficient headroom above our current working capital requirements to fund future potential in-fill acquisitions.


Commenting, David Miles, Chief Executive, Mears Group, said:

"I am pleased with the progress made by the Group in 2014. Both the Social Housing and Care divisions continue to deliver high quality customer services, which remain our key differentiator underpinning our success in bidding new contracts, and provide a strong visibility to revenues. Trading at this early stage in the year is in line with the Board's expectations."

Investec Add 474.50 520.00 520.00 Reiterates

I've gone long here - seems to have moved strongly away from the 200sma.

Ex-divi wed 11th June (6.3p)
I hold stock which I bought recently.
Hoping for c30p profit per share plus divi! Might take profit though if it gets there before the divi.

Harry I've traded/held these for ten years or more - the chart looks very positive (to me) - I'm +10p on today's trade - so quite smughappy!

AGM Statement

Mears Group PLC (LSE: MER), the provider of services to the Social Housing and Care sectors in the UK, will hold the Company's Annual General Meeting at 9.30a.m., today during which the Chairman will make the following statement:

"Mears issued its Interim Management Statement on 19 May 2014 which highlighted the following:

· Mears continued to deliver solid trading across both core divisions in line with management expectations.
· Mears had secured new contract awards since 1 January 2014 of in excess of £110 million. The Group had achieved 94% visibility of the £908 million consensus revenue forecast for 2014 and 72% visibility of the £960 million consensus revenue forecast for 2015. The order book stood at £3.8 billion with a bid pipeline of £3.0 billion

· Mears continued to benefit from a strong balance sheet and a strong focus on working capital management.

I am pleased to announce that the positive trends referred to in the May statement are continuing."

Liberum Capital Buy 473.75 473.75 - 560.00 Reiterates

Not heading in the right direction atm.......fallen below the 200 DMA. Post ex-divi date so fall not unexpected, but hoping for a recovery pdq!

That's better!

Almost back to breakeven.............sp now above 200 DMA.......... have had the divi. Would be nice to achieve a little profit before moving on!

Strong looking chart - interims tomorrow 19th.

Interim Results

Financial Highlights
· Profit before tax* from continuing activities of £18.7m (2013: £16.9m), growth of 11%
· Excellent EBITDA cash conversion from continuing activities of 100% (2013: 85%)
· New contract wins in excess of £200m: Social Housing awards of £135m with a win rate of 35% (2013: £235m and 33%) and Care awards of £66m with a win rate of 63% (2013: £21m and 37%)
· Strong balance sheet with net cash at 30 June 2014 of £2.7m (2013: net debt £21.7m); average net debt of £63.0m (2013: £74.2m)

Liberum Capital Buy 492.75 493.25 560.00 560.00 Reiterates

Investec Add 489.88 520.00 520.00 Reiterates

Interims seemed reasonable. I go away for a week and sp goes into reverse for no apparent reason!

460 gone.

Bearish engulfing candle....

Isn't that a Bullish engulfing candle (but the wrong colour!). Doesn't a Bearish engulfing candle follow an obvious uptrend?

I knew there was something missing (the up trend) :-)

Clear as mud to me!!! The one in mid Nov last year is presumably a better example.
My understanding is that this should now be implying 'over sold', but if only it was that simple!

Yes - but it looks like a test of 440 on the way.

Might try and bail out if it gets close to the 200 DMA. Would be about break even for me. (+ divi).
Looking at the 5 year chart, the downside risk is just too great, imo.

Acquisition of Omega Group


Mears, the support services group to the Social Housing and Care sectors in the UK, is pleased to announce the acquisition of the Omega Group ("Omega" or "Omega Group") for an initial cash consideration of £20 million. Omega is a leading private sector provider of residential lettings and management services to the Social Housing market, with a portfolio of circa 1,700 properties and a client base of 24 Local Authorities and Housing Associations. The large majority of Omega's customers are based within London. However its most significant recent success has been to become the Social Lettings Agency for Birmingham City Council under a five-year contract to provide lettings, housing management and temporary accommodation services.

The Omega Group comprises:

· Omega Lettings Limited, 100% owned, property lettings
· Tando Property Services Limited, 50% owned joint venture, property lettings
· O&T Developments Limited, 50% owned joint venture, property lettings
· Zenon Property Services Limited, 100% owned, maintenance provider
· Omega Housing Limited, 100% controlled, Registered Provider (not for profit)
· Let-to-Birmingham Limited, 100% controlled, property lettings


Prior to its acquisition by Mears, Omega was owned and operated by members of the Antoniou family. The management team will remain with the business.

Rationale for the acquisition

The acquisition of Omega is in line with the Group's strategic aim to continue growing in the evolving Social Housing market; it will add further innovation to Mears' housing management offering and it is sympathetic to our partnership ethos. More specifically, the acquisition is a logical extension to the services provided within our Social Housing division and will add value to our existing customer base. Moreover, this acquisition will enhance our ability to work more widely with housing providers to improve the delivery of housing and property management services and to increase the supply and management of housing. Omega has been very successful in developing customer relationships, and Mears' national footprint will offer a wider range of customer relationships for Omega's services. The acquisition augments the Mears' medium term growth strategy and is anticipated to be earnings enhancing in the year ending 31 December 2015.

Key financial information

The latest audited accounts for Omega Lettings Limited are for the year ended 31 December 2013. The remaining Omega Group companies are entitled to accounting exemptions given their individual sizes and so prepare abbreviated accounts which are unaudited. The latest unaudited accounts for O&T Developments Limited are for the year to 31 January 2014 and the latest unaudited accounts for the remaining Omega Group companies are for the year ended 31 March 2013.

The aggregate pro-forma financial results extracted from the latest accounts for each of the Omega Group companies reported revenues, profit before tax and gross assets of £15.9m, £2.0m and £7.9m respectively. This reflects a 50% profit contribution and no inclusion of gross assets in respect of Tando Property Services and O&T Developments which will be accounted for using the equity method of accounting going forwards.

Mears expects the transaction to be earnings neutral in the year ending 31 December 2014. Whilst there will be some initial costs of integration, together with the transaction costs already incurred, these will be reported within normal trading and will be funded by Omega profits generated in the period up to the 31 December 2014.

Acquisition consideration

The initial consideration for the acquisition is £20.0 million in cash funded from Mears' existing banking facilities. The Omega business will be acquired with a normal level of working capital. Additional deferred consideration is payable at a multiple of 6.8 applied to average EBITDA over the 36 month period to 31 October 2017, up to a maximum of £20.0 million, and is payable in instalments across the earn-out period. The deferred consideration will be satisfied using either cash or shares, at the discretion of the Company, with the total consideration capped at £40.0 million.

Commenting on the acquisition, David Miles, Chief Executive of Mears, said:

"We are delighted to announce the completion of the acquisition of Omega. The shortage of safe and secure housing is a significant challenge faced by Mears' clients today. I anticipate Local Authorities having increased responsibility to provide more social homes and remove the reliance upon those private landlords who provide properties which are not of a uniformly high standard. This acquisition is a logical extension to the services provided within our Social Housing division and will enhance our ability to work with housing providers to improve the delivery of housing and property management services.

"I have been impressed by the quality of the Omega Group management team, who appear to have a strong cultural fit with Mears, and I welcome the Omega team to the Mears Group.

"I am excited by the medium term organic growth opportunities that will be facilitated through the development of the Omega business model. I know that Mears' clients will welcome our involvement to help professionalise this service area whilst being in a position to provide financial stability."

Interim Management Statement

Investec Hold 432.50 432.50 520.00 450.00 Downgrades

Hmmmmm.....I knew I should have kicked this one into touch. Am going to have to hold longer than anticipated!

Appointment as Preferred Bidder
Mears, the provider of support services to the Social Housing and Care sectors in the UK, is pleased to announce that it has been appointed preferred bidder by Torbay & Southern Devon NHS Trust ('Torbay' or 'the Trust') for Living Well@Home Services. It is anticipated that the contract will be awarded in January 2015 and will be for a minimum five year term with three possible one-year extensions. We understand this to be the first time that a contract of this type has been let to a single prime contractor in the UK.

The Trust has responsibility for all community NHS and Adult Social Care activities in the area. Mears will deliver a full range of community based services including personal care and more complex services such as health care at home, community support, mental health and learning disabilities support. The Trust currently spends in excess of £10 million per annum on home care and support services.

As prime contractor, Mears will also be responsible for working in partnership with the Trust to integrate IT systems and drive future innovation in service development. The Trust specifically wanted a long term strategic partner who is able to demonstrate a commitment to integrated working and the development of services that push the boundaries of quality care and support. Outcome-based payments will be implemented as soon as possible within the contract period.

This new contract is expected to commence in April 2015. The contract is designed to provide the flexibility for other services such as sheltered housing and a seven day response service, to be considered in the future.

Pre-Close Trading Update

Mears, the provider of support services to the Social Housing and Care sectors in the UK, today issues a pre-close trading update ahead of its preliminary results for the year ended 31 December 2014, which will be released on 17 March 2015.

Mears delivered a solid trading performance across both core divisions and anticipates reporting results for the full year in line with management expectations. Mears continues to benefit from strong cash conversion and anticipates reporting a net cash position as at 31 December 2014.

The Group has 92% visibility of the market consensus revenue forecast for 2015 of £886 million (2014: 90%).

Commenting, David Miles, Chief Executive, Mears, said:

"I am pleased with the progress Mears has made in 2014.

"Mears has been focused over the last twelve months on providing a broader affordable housing offering to its customers. Our extended range of services has mirrored our clients' changing needs. We have invested in Housing Management and continued to develop new forms of partnering arrangements. I believe the opportunities for us in Social Housing remain very strong as our clients seek broader solutions to their increasingly complex housing challenges.

"In Care, as a robust high quality provider at the forefront of change in the sector, we remain very well placed strategically to take advantage of the longer term opportunities. I am delighted at the success we have achieved in new contract bidding and, importantly, we continue to see a positive move in the structure of tendered opportunities with new contracts being awarded to fewer providers but with increasing contract lengths. The anticipated award of the Torbay contract is another crucial milestone for Mears and represents further strong development in the UK Care market.

"I am delighted to report that we continue to achieve high levels of service delivery and customer satisfaction. The quality of our service delivery continues to be our key differentiator and underpins our success in bidding new contracts in both of our core growth sectors."


-ENDS-

Blimey! this one shot up for no apparent reason. Nearly missed it......and nearly at break even!

FIL Limited < 5%

Final Results

Financial Highlights
· Revenue of £838.7m (2013: £865.6m), following the anticipated normalisation of the ex-Morrison revenue run-rate
· Social Housing operating margin increased to 4.8% (2013: 4.5%), driven primarily by the improving margins being generated from the ex-Morrison business
· Record profit before tax* of £42.0m (2013: £39.3m), growth of 7%
· Excellent EBITDA cash conversion of 96% (2013: 103%)
· New contract wins in excess of £300m: Social Housing awards of £170m with a conversion rate of 35% (2013: £420m and 32%) and Care awards of £130m with a conversion rate of 73% (2013: £96m and 69%)
· Strong balance sheet with average net debt of £59.0m (2013: £70.0m); net cash at 31 December of £3.8m (2013: net debt £0.4m) and closing core debt of £75.0m following acquisition of Omega
· Progressive dividend policy increasing total dividend by 14%, closely tracking growth in earnings , to 10.0p per share (2013: 8.80p)

Ex-divi 11th June 2015 (7.15p)

Having held these several times over that 15 years or so - I'm not currently a holder!

Quite a turn around since last November.

Where's the next stop skinny? 480p?

Out of the recent broker notes, lets go for Liberium - still not holding.

StockMarketWire.com
Mears Group has acquired Care UK Homecare Ltd and Care UK Community Care Agency Ltd, the corporate entities comprising the Care at Home division of Care UK Ltd.

Total consideration is £11.3 million in cash comprising a base payment of £9.0 million valuing the business on a debt-free basis and assuming a normal level of working capital together with a further payment of £2.3 million made in respect of cash balances and excess working capital acquired on completion.

CAH provides community based care services to over 10,000 service users in England, Wales and Scotland, and it has contracts with over 90 local authorities and Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs), employing circa 6,000 staff.

Trading Statement

Mears Group PLC (LSE: MER), the provider of services to the Social Housing and Care sectors in the UK, today issues its trading statement for the period 1 January 2015 to date. This statement will also be delivered at the Company's Annual General Meeting, being held at 9.30am today at Buchanan, 107 Cheapside, London, EC2V 6DN.

Mears continues to deliver a solid trading performance across both core divisions in line with management expectations.

The Group has now achieved 93% visibility of the £881 million consensus revenue forecast for 2015 and 82% visibility of the £930 million consensus revenue forecast for 2016 (prior to the acquisition of the Care at Home division of Care UK Limited announced on 1 June 2015).

Business Development

Whilst new bidding opportunities remain slow to develop, we have continued to make solid progress in our Social Housing division. In aggregate, Mears has secured new social housing contracts since 1 January 2015 amounting to £62 million, a conversion rate by value of 39%. Notably, we have secured a 10 year contract with Croydon Churches worth £30 million. The Group expects increased bidding activity in the second half of 2015.

Our Care business has continued to progress well. In aggregate, Mears has secured new Care contracts since 1 January 2015 amounting to £26 million, a conversion rate by value of 61%.
Acquisition of the Care at Home division of Care UK Limited
On 1 June 2015, Mears announced the acquisition of the Care at Home division of Care UK ('CAH').
The acquisition of CAH increases significantly Mears' scale within the UK domiciliary care market, making Mears the second largest provider. CAH has excellent geographic-fit with our existing Care business with limited customer cross-over. Mears' position with a number of strategically important clients will be improved; a number of these are believed to be sympathetic towards re-tendering with output-based contracts, where Mears is the undisputed leader. Historically, CAH has held one of the best track records of compliance and regulatory ratings amongst the national providers.
Developing the Care market

As previously reported, the award of an innovative partnering contract by Torbay & Southern Devon NHS Trust ('Torbay') represented a significant milestone. In a move away from traditional 'task and time' based contracts, Mears will be paid by results based upon meeting desired outcomes that have been agreed directly with service users. This change in commissioning is central to the Group's strategy and we are well positioned, as a high quality business focused upon service delivery, to benefit from this market change. The Torbay contract, which mobilised in April 2015, has commenced positively. We are pleased to report a number of opportunities in the pipeline are now following outcome-based approaches. The acquisition of CAH will make Mears a more attractive partner for the emerging, larger partnering-orientated contracts such as those already held by Mears in Torbay and Wiltshire.

Development of Housing Management

In October 2014, Mears completed the acquisition of the Omega Group ('Omega'), a leading private sector provider of accommodation and management services to the Social Housing market. This acquisition enhances our ability to work more widely with housing providers to improve the delivery of housing and asset management services and to increase the supply and management of housing, in line with our strategy to grow and evolve our Housing Management offering. Since its acquisition, the performance of Omega has exceeded the Group's original expectations and the Group has secured a number of contracts for the provision of lettings, housing management and temporary accommodation services. A number of the Group's most significant new bidding opportunities extend into Housing Management services.

Financial position

Mears continues to benefit from its financial strength and the efficiency with which the Group manages working capital. The Group's revolving credit facility of £120 million is committed until July 2018 and provides sufficient headroom above our current working capital requirements.

Commenting, David Miles, Chief Executive, Mears Group, said:

"I am pleased with the progress made to date by the Group in 2015. Both the Social Housing and Care divisions continue to deliver high quality customer service which remains our key differentiator underpinning our success in bidding new contracts and providing strong revenue visibility.
"I am delighted to have announced the acquisition of CAH earlier this week. In many ways, this deal mirrors our acquisition of Morrison. We have acquired a significant competitor at an attractive valuation. Our focus will be on enhancing service delivery and thus generating financial improvements. This acquisition further strengthens Mears' market leadership in Care. Given our strong operational platform and differentiated service delivery ethos, together with our proven ability to turnaround businesses, I am confident that we will deliver improvements to CAH's contracts, customers, service users and employees.
"Whilst, as we anticipated, new bidding opportunities in Social Housing have been subdued in the first half of 2015, I am excited by a number of material contract opportunities that are now reaching an advanced bidding stage that bring together a broader range of our Housing services."

All sounds pretty good. No doubt the sp will nose dive at the open for no explicable reason!

Interim Results

For the six months to 30 June 2015

Mears Group PLC, the provider of support services to the Social Housing and Care sectors in the UK, is pleased to announce interim results for the six months to 30 June 2015.

Financial Highlights
· Profit before tax* of £19.2m (2014: £18.7m), growth of 3%
· Improved operating margins of 4.9% (2014: 4.7%) driven by Social Housing
· Excellent EBITDA cash conversion for the twelve months to June 2015 of 92% (2014: 100%)
· New contract wins in excess of £220m (2014: 201m):
o Social Housing awards of £185m with a win rate on competitively tendered works of 33% (2014: £135m and 35%)
o Care awards of £35m with a win rate of 60% (2014: £66m and 63%)
· Strong balance sheet with net debt at 30 June 2015 of £4.2m (2014: net cash £2.7m); average net debt of £69.0m (2014: £63.0m)

Social Housing Division:
· Revenue of £366.5m (2014: £364.9m)
· Operating margin of 5.0% (2014: 4.2%), reflecting continued margin improvement driven by efficiencies from former Morrison contracts and sales mix moving towards higher margin Housing Management activities
· Continuing high levels of customer satisfaction
· Strong period of business development in Housing Management
· Hiatus in maintenance contract opportunities coming to an end

Care Division:
· Revenue of £63.5m (2014: £63.2m)
· Operating margin, before the impact of the Care UK Care at Home business ('CAH'), of 5.8% (2014: 7.8%) reflecting significant investment in carer pay and impact of new contract mobilisations
· Continued strong regulatory compliance
· The acquisition of CAH significantly increases the scale of Mears within the domiciliary care market, now the second biggest provider in the UK
Outlook:
· Order book at £3.2 billion (2014: £3.7 billion) reflecting the short-term delay in new bidding opportunities over the last 12 months
· Bidding opportunities into the longer term expected to remain at historical levels
· Visibility of 96% of consensus forecast revenue for 2015 and 85% for 2016 (2014: being 95% and 85% respectively)


more....

Liberum Capital Buy 400.25 515.00 515.00 Reiterates

I wonder why they have suddenly upped their target. No details presumably skinny, to go with that 515p target?

Harry - its a reiteration,not an update - see here.

Ah thanks, though not very inspiring as they have been punting around that target for ages now and the sp has drifted south! Perhaps I should average down now and ditch the lot at 470p!

I've been watching for months but don't hold atm.

shot up over the last two days, following the payment of the divi. Not sure why the rise has happened but opportunity to exit for me.

StockMarketWire.com
Mears Group said it continues to deliver a solid trading performance and anticipates reporting FY results in line with management expectations.

"The Group has 94% visibility of the market consensus revenue forecast for 2016 of £975 million (2015: 92%). This is ahead of recent years, reflecting the strong progress made in new contract bidding," it said.

"The Group continues to see a strong performance in its Housing division, which accounts for 80% of Group revenues, compared with the more challenging environment within the Care division.

"Strong working capital management continues to benefit the Group with a net cash position anticipated as at 31 December 2015."

StockMarketWire.com
Mears Group's FY pretax profit has slipped to GBP25.9m, from GBP29.7m. Sales revenue totalled GBP881.1m, from GBP838.7m. Dividend was 11p a share, from 10p.

Separately, Mears said it had been appointed preferred bidder by Devon County Council for the provision of homecare services. The contract is for an initial five-year period with an option to extend for a further two years and will be worth over GBP100m.

Returning to the results, CEO David Miles said:
"Our Housing business has delivered a strong performance. We are delighted with the progress being made with our developing Housing Management business. The speed of change in this area is particularly exciting and we are well placed to benefit from an extensive pipeline of opportunities.

"We continue to find the Care market challenging. We are placing greater emphasis on maintaining a portfolio of good quality contracts that can provide clear and sustainable margins whilst at the same time delivering a first class experience to our service users.

"The introduction of the National Living Wage has placed further financial pressures on both Care commissioners and providers but I have generally been encouraged by the initial reaction of our clients in recognising their responsibility to reflect the increase in our cost base with matching increases in our fee rates.

"We have significantly increased our focus upon carer retention and recruitment and I am pleased with the progress being made in this critical area. We remain confident that we have the right strategy and that Mears is well placed to take advantage of industry evolution.

"We continue to achieve high levels of service delivery and customer satisfaction. The quality of our service delivery continues to be our key differentiator and underpins our success in winning new contracts in both of our core growth sectors.

"Since the turn of the year, trading remains in line with our expectations for the full year. The Group is well positioned to take advantage of future opportunities and we look forward to updating the market with further successes."

StockMarketWire.com
Care support services firm Mears (MER) delivered a solid trading performance and anticipates reporting results for the half year in line with management expectations.

The group achieved 97% visibility of the £973 million consensus revenue forecast for 2016 and 85% visibility of the £1.03 billion consensus revenue forecast for 2017.

HOUSING
The group continues to see a strong performance in its housing division, which accounts for circa 83% of group revenues.

The housing division has experienced a particularly busy period of new contract mobilisations with a number of material contracts starting during the period. Two were of particular note:

- Mears formed a new regeneration partnership with Milton Keynes Council called YourMK, focusing on the regeneration of key areas in Milton Keynes. The contract, which mobilised in April 2016, is initially delivering repairs and maintenance services to nearly 11,500 homes and the company saw a significant extension to the scope of works. The contract is valued at &million;250 million over five years.

- Mears mobilised a key worker housing contract providing a full housing management service throughout the UK. This includes sourcing properties, managing the application and allocation process as well as the subsequent day to day administration. The contract, which fully mobilised in April 2016, is valued at £195 million over the initial three year term.

All new mobilisations are progressing well. The group anticipates a lower margin from a new contract during its mobilisation phase, being a time when the primary focus is in investing to establish excellent customer service.

Accordingly, whilst these new contracts will generate a lower margin at the half year, operating margins can be expected to normalise during the second half of the year.

In addition, Mears was re-awarded a contract with Sutton Housing Partnership to provide responsive repairs, voids and planned maintenance services to around 6,000 homes. The contract was previously awarded on an emergency basis following the termination of the incumbent provider.

The new award of a ten year contract, valued at £45 million, is a reward for the group's willingness to take the contract at short-notice.

The new contract is due to mobilise in July 2016.

Mears was awarded additional areas to its existing home group contract. Mears was awarded a five year contract to deliver responsive repairs, voids, gas servicing and planned maintenance services to a further 5,000 properties in the central region.

In addition, Mears won twelve month emergency contract to deliver the same range of services to 10,000 properties in the North West region. These two additional contracts, which were mobilised over a short timescale in April 2016, are together valued at around £35 million.

Mears was successful in re-securing the Sedgefield contract. The contract, which provides responsive and planned maintenance to around 8,500 homes, is valued at £110 million over the ten year contract term. The new contract starts in July 2016.

The company was also successful, subject to the conclusion of a standstill period, in being appointed as commercial adviser in respect to the Gateshead contract. The new contract, which is due to commence in April 2017, will see Mears take a greater role in the strategic development of our partnership to an enlarged insourcing solution. The Manchester City Council joint venture is the last material re-bid, with the contract due to expire in March 2017 and the tender process is ongoing.

CARE
The care business, which accounts for circa 17% of group revenues, continues to find the current market conditions challenging. There remains a significant disparity between the short and long-term care opportunity in the UK.

Mears continues to focus upon improving carer recruitment and retention rates, which remains a significant constraint to progress.

Much of the focus in the first six months of the year has been with a view to managing the impact of the national living wage (NLW).

At this time, we implemented rate increases covering approximately 75% of our care business which, in aggregate, has delivered a blended increase in charge rates of around 6%.

Mears commenced a detailed contract-level review by contract which is expected to conclude over the coming weeks.

As reported previously, Mears was appointed as primary provider by Devon County Council (Devon) for the provision of homecare services across South Devon.

The contract is fundamentally different from the norm, with the client outsourcing to Mears its adult social care function, taking on responsibility for commissioning, co-ordinating and supporting other local providers.

The contract is for an initial five year period with an option to extend for a further two years and is valued at over £100m. The contract, which is the largest care contract ever awarded to Mears, is currently in its pre-mobilisation phase and is due to commence in July 2016.

Mears was notified by Wiltshire Council, subject to completion of the usual standstill period and Cabinet ratification, of its intention to award Mears zones in the North and West regions of the county, to add to existing work in the south and east.

This will mean Mears will be the prime provider for the significant majority of work across the county, which will double the overall value of the work done by Mears. The additional work has been awarded to Mears due to the high levels of service and partnership working we have delivered under our existing contract.

In the long-term, Mears continues to see significant opportunity in the Care sector and remains confident that it has the right strategy.

FINANCIAL POSITION
As previously reported, the group recently amended and extended its revolving working capital facility. The total commitment under the facility increased from £120m to £140m together with a reduction in pricing.

The directors anticipate reporting a small net debt position at 30 June 2016.

Jefferies International today reaffirms its hold investment rating on Mears Group PLC (LON:MER) and raised its price target to 460p (from 430p).

Pre-Close Trading Update

Peel Hunt Buy 450.88 550.00 550.00 Reiterates

Liberum Capital Buy 450.88 540.00 540.00 Reiterates

Just closed for a 3day +25p round trip.

StockMarketWire.com
Housing and social care provider Mears said its housing revenues will be £30 million lower than previously expected this year, resulting in a loss of profit and lower overhead recovery.

It warned that the recent tragic events at Grenfell Tower will impact the housing division as clients review the commissioning and safety practices at their properties.

"These unexpected events will inevitably impact the timing of our planned workloads as clients' attentions have naturally been diverted towards ensuring that their housing portfolios are safe and fully compliant," the company said.

It expects housing revenues of around £800m in 2017, compared with its previous expectation of £830m.

Housing margins will be between 5.3% and 5.5% rather than the previous expectation of 5.6% to 5.8%.

In the first half, Mears' revenue increased by 1% to £470.8m, with adjusted profit before tax up 1% to £18.3m.

The housing division, which accounts for 85% of group revenues, reported revenues of £402.1m, representing organic growth of 3%.

The care division saw revenues decline by 10% to £68.7m, which the company said reflects significant progress in securing new contracts to replace the lost revenues following the closure of sub-optimal branches.

The company declared an interim dividend of 3.45p, an increase of 5% year-on-year.

Peel Hunt Buy 445.75 550.00 550.00 Reiterates

Liberum Capital Buy 445.75 540.00 540.00 Reiterates

Liberum Capital today reaffirms its buy investment rating on Mears Group PLC (LON:MER) and cut its price target to 500p (from 540p).

StockMarketWire.com
Social housing and care-sector support company Mears Group said it had seen further softening of revenues in its housing division.

The company said it had commenced a "right-sizing" across a range of support functions that would would last until the end of the year. More details would be provided in March.

"I do not wish to gloss over our 2017 performance and I understand the importance of delivering against our financial targets in the short term," chief executive David Miles said.

"Whilst some of the short-term challenges in housing could not have been anticipated, it is frustrating a number of other opportunities that could have helped mitigate these challenges did not develop quickly enough."

"Nonetheless, I am pleased with the progress made over the last year across the entire Mears business and on a range of important indicators."

Liberum Capital today reaffirms its buy investment rating on Mears Group PLC (LON:MER) and cut its price target to 480p (from 525p).

StockMarketWire.com
Housing and care-sector services provider Mears Group posted a fall in annual profit, amid delays to the timing of planned workloads following the fatal fire at Grenfell Tower.

Pre-tax profit slipped 7% to £37.1m, as revenue declined by 4% to £900.2m.

The company said it also experienced a slow period securing new contract revenues in its housing division.

It nevertheless increased its annual dividend by 3% to 12.00p per share.

'Whilst 2017 proved to be a challenging year, we have made solid operational progress,' chief executive David Miles said.

'The decline in housing revenues following the tragic events at Grenfell Tower has stabilised although there still remains some uncertainty as to the speed at which these revenues will recover.'

'The performance of the care division has been a highlight, returning to profitability as planned following a period of restructuring, putting the care division on a stable footing.'

Placing at 331p and the share price is now 327p so I guess some aren't impressed.