Mears Share Discussion Threads

[hazelton] 21/8/2007 07:35

Mears Group PLC is once again pleased to announce record results for the six
months ended 30 June 2007.


The highlights for the six months include:


* Turnover up 16.0%
* Profit before tax up 23.3%
* Diluted earnings per share up 19.7%
* Interim dividend up 22.2%
* Major contract awards £196m
* Order book increased to £1.24 billion
* Acquisition of Careforce Group plc



Bob Holt, Chairman, said:

'I am pleased to announce record results for the 6 months ended 30 June 2007.
Your Group is in good hands for the next stage of development. The management
team remodelled how social housing services have been provided and purchased by
local authorities. We will strive to replicate our success in the care sector
and continue to be a market leader in all markets in which we operate.'

[hosede] 20/8/2007 11:59

There is some support on the chart between 250 and 260: if it breaks down thru that in a general collapse, its difficult to see where it might end!

[polopolo2] 16/8/2007 22:15

Strong progress in share price over last few days whilst others plummet south. IMHO results next week will continue to impress the market.

[polopolo2] 07/8/2007 12:11

In the absence of any updates I picked up the phone and spoke with the company on friday and was informed the awaited outcome of the investigation is not due until September.

This will be after the results which are due around 21st this month. Am sure the results will continue to impress as thay always have but the share price will perhaps linger until the September outcome.

I am no expert but strongly feel they remain a strong buy at these levels which have not been seen for over a year.

[hosede] 06/8/2007 11:04

Tibbs
Yes we seem to have similar tastes in shares. topped up here at 280 and its now my biggest holding - very defensive. Originally bought at 29 so its emotionally quite difficult to buy at 280!

[mistertibbs] 29/7/2007 12:32

Josh, thank you for explaining your point. I also agree about the Home care market. I continue to see plenty of activity with Laidlaw Scott in these parts so can only presume the takeover of them by mer has been good for them as previously, they were rarely seen in my neck of the woods.

Hello yet again hosede.I also agree with you on that one. I would also like to see the directors showing some faith in their company as they seem reluctant to buy or even hold shares other than their options. That for me, is the largest negative.

[hosede] 25/7/2007 14:52

Would be nice to have some follow-up to the "denial of any problems in BBC report" nearly three weeks back.

[joshalexander] 20/7/2007 21:40

mistertibbs.

I was simply pointing out that the % increases in earnings looking forward are beginning to slow, in the context of the type of growth the Mears have enjoyed over the past five years. This is partly beacuse MER is now a larger organistaion, but also beacause they already have a large chuck of the "Social Housing" Market, although opportunities still remain to grow in that sector.

My comments were just to explain why they have expanded into the "new" Domicilarly Care Sector, where Careforce have about a 2% Market share. This shows how hugely fragmented this Market is - and also the opportunity that MER now have to grow aggressively this part of the Business. The Home Care Market will be a main driver of growth in the years ahead IMO.


Regards

[mistertibbs] 20/7/2007 16:08

Broker Consensus Earnings (p)
FY1 31/12/07 16.38
FY2 31/12/08 18.61
FY3 31/12/09 20.9


From a different site. Still looks ok

* Diluted EPS - normalised for full tax pre amortisation 13.63p (2005:
10.80p), up 26.2%

And this from the finals in April.

Please explain your comment JA regarding broker forecasts

[mistertibbs] 20/7/2007 15:52

Forecasts
Year Ending Revenue (£m) Pre-tax (£m) EPS P/E PEG EPS Grth. Div Yield
31-Dec-07 315.75 16.90 16.39p 17.7 1.4 +13% 3.94p 1.4%
31-Dec-08 363.67 19.63 18.39p 15.8 1.3 +12% 4.47p 1.6%

Covering analysts: Arbuthnot Securities, Daniel Stewart & Company Plc, Dresdner Kleinwort, Investec Securities, Numis Securities


Now this may be out of date. Will investegate. Doesn't look like a reduction in that little lot.

[mistertibbs] 20/7/2007 15:48

JA...I find your comment on forecast earnings interesting. Brokers', now if ever there was an overpaid shower of chancers', brokers' take the top prize as far as I'm concerned. They look to the next few weeks and turnover as many stocks as possible in order to generate commission, all in the name of advise.

And I refer back to my previous post on the quality of BBC journalists today. Need I say more?

[joshalexander] 20/7/2007 10:10

Also looking at the Broker forecasts for Mears, earnings growth is set to slow sharply over the next two years. They need to grow the Business to keep their premium mulitple, this growth will largely come from growing the Domicilarly Care Business aggressively IMO.

[joshalexander] 19/7/2007 20:14

Mears have diversified from Social Housing as competition is increasing in that sector and will continue to do so. Domicilary Care provides huge opportunities for growth and the Market remains highly fragramented. If anyone has any questions about the growth opportunites in the Home Care Market, they only need to look at the Claimar share price (CCGP). This will become an increasingly important part of Mear's future and I see the Company aggressively expannding this part of the Business.
The Domicilary Care Market is estimated to be worth over £4 Billion annually, some of which is accounted for by Local Authority "in house" services, which are increasingly being contracted out.

[zoobie] 16/7/2007 22:13

Can anybody tell me why the buttons to download recent articles are not present at the bottom of any of the pages.. thanks if you can!

[alexjames] 10/7/2007 13:02

Bob's a little bit of an enigma as far as i'm concerned. He's had great successes, the kind that you hear about time & again, but combined with MITIE & MEARS there's the less talked-about, unfortunate escapades like the US on-line gaming disaster which i believe he lost a few quid in.
Housing Maintenance is a lucrative business until it comes to dealing with an objectionable tenant; one that is rarely gainfully employed, devotes the majority of his/her time to undermining the work of the contractor & the local authority/housing association & generally trashes his/her gaff to get 'new' of everything on a frequent basis. So i can understand Mears' fears of that kind of tenant rubbishing them in a customer satisfaction survey.
What a commercial housing maintenance company is great at is identifying clients systems that are vulnerable to being circumvented, usually for financial gain. If tradesmens'/managers' bonuses are built around the throughput of work & jobs completed, it's doesn't take a genius to work out some jobs will be booked as complete when in fact they've not been completed. If the client fails to inspect that jobs have been done, you can see the picture emerging. If the client has access to more funds as a result of high satisfaction survey levels & jobs successfully completed, you can understand why Mears & their client are singing from the same proverbial hymmn sheet.
I suspect this will eventually blow over & things get back to normality, but the halo has definitely slipped
IMHO, Stuart Black left because he was nothing more than a glorified tea-boy who wasn't in charge of the tea biscuits & disagreed too loudly with the Careforce acquisition. His departure may prove to be a positive career move in the fullness of time, having learned wearing the badge does not guarantee the seat of power.

[diogenesj] 09/7/2007 11:57

Bob Holt was fomerly with Mitie Group, another huge long-term winner, so I think we have to assume he knows what he is doing, unless it turns out that there is substance to the BBC allegations. The fact that he fired his CEO Stuart Black suddenly and without explanation in January this year does suggest that all may not be entirely well. There have also been questions about the recent acquisition Careforce ('an odd choice' according to Altium, who downgraded the shares to Hold on the news).

Haven't come across WYT before, I'm afraid.

[currypasty] 09/7/2007 11:49

any of you Mears fans got any of Bobs other Company Wyatt group (WYT)? Do you rate him, has he run mears well ?

[diogenesj] 08/7/2007 13:07

Very true, ppmman, but on the other hand discretion is the better part of valour, especially now with the market so jittery.

[ppmman] 08/7/2007 02:29

He who hesitates is lost

[diogenesj] 07/7/2007 17:50

Lol, Beery, no, haven't got the guts for shorting, especially one of the all-time greats like Mears. I was just looking in to see if they had fallen far enough to be worth buying again. I'm not quite sure that they have yet.

[hazelton] 06/7/2007 20:28

Mears Group PLC
06 July 2007


6 July 2007

Mears Group PLC ('Mears' or the 'Company')

Hackney and Islington Contract - BBC Report

Certain allegations have been made in a BBC 5 Live report regarding the
Company's conduct relating to works carried out for the Family Mosaic Housing
Association in Hackney and Islington ('Family Mosaic').

The Company is taking the allegations seriously. Its own initial investigations
on the matter have shown there to be no substance to the claims made but Mears
welcomes an independent investigation by The Housing Corporation, the sector's
regulator. Mears expects this to be completed in the next few weeks and the
Board is confident of a satisfactory outcome.

Mears conducts over 20,000 jobs per annum on behalf of Family Mosaic, a contract
which began in October 2004. Family Mosaic independently measures Mears'
performance and these measures support Mears' own information showing around 90%
customer satisfaction levels, significantly exceeding sector norms.
Mears' processes for managing jobs through to post inspection are fully audited
both internally and externally.


Enquiries

Mears Group PLC

[beerbandit] 06/7/2007 19:42

Dodgyknees I hope your not caught short on these after todays announcement (:

[diogenesj] 06/7/2007 16:30

Still not cheap on current forecasts, polopolo, and there's a whiff of scandal which may be expensive to sort out and will not be easy to live down.

[polopolo2] 06/7/2007 13:42

This is now surely well and truly overdone.
It is an absolute gem of a company who's results compound every time, the figures have a habit of always exceding analysts expectations so why on earth is the share price continuing to drop. Remarkably it is a crazy 275 as I write down a futher 4% today.

Just wish I had some spare funds to mop up.

[mistertibbs] 04/7/2007 13:56

Hello GI if your still with us. I sold 25% when Capn Bob sold his holding and other directors appear to have done similar over time. That has concerned me and my main reason for reducing my interest here.

Whistleblowers are hard to call and the BBC investigations not always 100% as they now compete in a world of much poorer journalistic standards. Mer has, in the past been very reliable in my view and the market will indeed take a dim view of this. However, been interested elsewhere and not overly concerned by this, although I watch with interest.

My average price is 57p so a lot of room between me and the poorhouse.

It does howewver, put the sudden resignation of Stuart Black in the picture again for me.

Been busy doing other things these days. Started my very own wee share club. Hard work in this market environment.