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?

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?