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?

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).