Mears Share Discussion Threads

[rivaldo] 11/11/2009 14:15

Excellent review in the IC:



"Mears "never stronger"
Created: 28 October 2009 Written by: Algy Hall

While the recession is proving a drag on the performance of other businesses, social housing group Mears says demand for its services "has never been stronger". Order intake since its March year-end now totals £450m with a number of big opportunities on the horizon. Forecast turnover for the year is almost in the bag already, and its £1.7bn order book includes 72 per cent of forecasts for next year, too.

About 90 per cent of Mears' business is in the defensive end markets of social housing and at-home care. Performance at both divisions was strong. But the cyclical slice of turnover from the group's mechanical and electrical division was also noteworthy for its strength. A strong foothold in Canary Wharf has helped the construction-focused business win promising Olympic-related work.

Broker Charles Stanley predicts adjusted full-year EPS of 22.3p rising to 25.6p (19p in 2008).
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SHARE TIP UPDATE:
Buy
At 278p, the shares are priced at 12.5 times predicted earnings. While the price is nicely up on our tip, it remains far from challenging, especially by historical standards. Buy"

[ghurah] 11/11/2009 13:52

off topic (in case some people mind)

is there anyone here that can help me?....read on...

are you working in the construction industry and would like to take part in a short (5 questions, 3-5min) questionaire i will be doing as part of my final year project?

I would appreciate as many responses as possible and would really help me...
if yes then please email me for further information:

[e-mail]

all confidential etc

[rivaldo] 11/11/2009 12:14

Moving up - hopefully this is a consolidation phase before a move to a higher trading range.

[rivaldo] 10/11/2009 09:11

MER interested in bidding for a 10-year, £200 million framework covering Decent Homes and planned improvement works to housing in South-west London:

[rivaldo] 04/11/2009 16:10

I will :o))

Interesting new article about creating a "sustainable" housing market:



Extract:

"Tackling the challenge

According to Paul Kellaway, commercial manager of social housing repairs and maintenance specialist Mears Group, the option of retrofitting is the only way by which Britain can tackle the sizeable challenge of bringing up to code Britain's social housing, which represents the oldest stock of housing in the developed world.

"The Committee on Climate Change suggests that emissions from housing stock need to be virtually eliminated by 2050," said Kellaway, "but at our current rate of demolition and building of new properties, it would take 1000 years to replace existing stock with zero carbon new homes.

"Where our situation differs from the French is that our stock is often terraced and semi-detached housing, generally constructed in brick or stone and will be considered to have architectural character or heritage values within the streetscape or neighbourhood," explained Kellaway.

"Yet for medium- and high-rise flats, the sort of rainscreen or insulated cladding solutions offered by companies like Carea may provide solutions for both improving insulation values and enhancing appearances.

He continued: "We need to embrace the culture of retrofitting wherever viable, as the French have, if we are going to successfully tackle the challenge of improving existing stock."

New builds: the French connection

With regards to new builds, the local authorities and RSLs have, at least on one occasion, looked to the French for inspiration – and on that occasion, it paid considerable dividends.

Bourbon Lane, a development in West London that was designed and built for an international competition by a collaboration of two architects – one from London, one from Paris – picked up a series of prestigious accolades as an innovative, contemporary solution to modern housing issues.

Dino Coursaris, director of the French firm in the partnership, B+C Architects, said: "In France I believe we have a more contemporary approach to urban construction – authorities are more open-minded in accepting radical architectural styles and use of external cladding is a natural choice.

"With Bourbon Lane, we took the client over to see examples of social housing in Paris, which is very compact, very dense, with a creative approach to cladding," continued Coursaris. "After seeing how successful this was, the client wanted us to do the same for this development and, if authorities in the UK are to address problems of social housing, they should also be keen to embrace this innovation by considering thermal envelope and airtight construction."

A light touch

With new builds, therefore, there are means by which we can ensure high standards of sustainability, as demonstrated by the Bourbon Lane project, which in turn affect the need for retrofitting in the future.

Paul Kellaway of Mears explained: "Considering in the initial design how a building might be upgraded in the future to achieve higher levels of the code through renewables might help design out future redundancy in housing stock. Whilst it might increase initial build costs, it will reduce retrofit and maintenance costs in the future."

But for the terraced and semi-detached housing that comprises the majority of the UK housing stock, what is the answer?

Carea's Atkinson concluded: "Because the culture is different here than in France, I believe many are too quick to assume that cladding is impractical with a lot of housing stock. It would be beneficial for the UK market to welcome the option of cladding more readily."

"With existing 'hard to treat' properties where retrofitting is truly impossible , a lighter touch is required" said Paul Kellaway of Mears, "Tenants can make a huge difference by actively pursuing eco-friendly practices, hence why Mears work very closely with tenant groups to make small changes add up. The effect of this involvement leads to improved outcomes for the individual, their homes and the community as a whole.""

[cwa1] 02/11/2009 22:14

Thanks rivaldo, keep up the good work :-)

[rivaldo] 02/11/2009 19:58

Nice summary on GCI. Don't forget MER is ISAble:



"Mears Group
STRONG BUY 30/10/2009
James Crux

Support services star Mears still offers investors growth aplenty in the defensive social housing and domiciliary care services markets, where spend is non-discretionary and the risk of cuts very low.

Long-established as the leading social housing repair and maintenance provider, Mears is also building a presence in domiciliary care, where it delivers more than 90,000 hours of care to 13,500 people or more every week.

For 2008, Mears delivered its thirteenth consecutive year of double-digit sales growth, with sales surging almost 40% higher to more than £420m and profits reached record levels in Mears' first year since graduating to the Main Market. More recent interims to June, unveiled by chairman and chief executive Bob Holt, further underscored the group's defensive credentials, with sales up nearly-15% to £233m and operating profits pushing 18% higher to £10.8m.

Since March, the group has clinched new contracts worth in excess of £450m, building its order book to £1.7bn plus, whilst the bid pipeline remains plentiful. In social housing, the bid pipeline stands at £3.5bn, underpinned by the market migration towards far bigger contracts, which are being won by proven players like Mears, able to deal with their complexities.

Significantly, Mears continues to spot a convergence between its social housing and care businesses – there are increasing opportunities to combine its care and repair services – that should only sharpen in future years, no matter what political party forms the Government.

Based on 2009 estimates, pointing to increased earnings of 22.4p (2008: 19.6p), Mears shares, offering a progressive dividend-income stream, are selling for around 12 times earnings, an undemanding rating given its superb track record and robust growth prospects."

[rivaldo] 28/10/2009 10:26

Good coverage in today's Mail:



"Bob Holt's social housing and care services provider Mears jumped 6.5p to 279.25p on a bullish trading statement. Full-year results will be in line with expectations and the group has won new orders worth another £450m-plus since interims in March.

The Social Housing bid pipeline has increased 20% to £3.5bn and £1.5bn is now at the active tender/advanced bid stage compared with £860m at the interims. Collins Stewart's target price is 335p."

[rivaldo] 27/10/2009 14:58

Numis have upgraded today - a 316p price target:



"LONDON (SHARECAST) - Mears Group has been upgraded by Numis Securities after the housing repair firm issued a comforting third quarter trading update.

The broker has left its full year earnings forecasts unchanged but has upgraded Mears from 'hold' to 'add' after the shares underperformed the FT All Share index by 8% over the last month.

'We believe there is scope for the shares to aspire to at least a market rating (i.e. PE [price/earnings ratio] of up to 13x, the basis of our target price) though the journey may be sporadic as the wider investor base has some concerns on the robustness of Social Housing R&M [renovation and maintenance] outsourcing trends and size of spend over an election period,' Numis analyst Francesca Raleigh said.

Numis has a price target of 316p for the stock."

[rivaldo] 27/10/2009 09:01

:o))

And more work announced today - got to go, so haven't got time to check if it's mentioned in today's RNS (don't think it is?):



"Council homes upgrades go-ahead
8:40am Tuesday 27th October 2009

WORK is set to start on upgrading more than 2,000 council homes in the new year after two contractors were given the work.

Attempts to bring the 6,000 properties, run by Colchester Borough Homes, up to the Government's Decent Homes standard have stalled since a contract between the organisation, Colchester Council and contractor Inspace ended in June last year.

Colchester Council's cabinet agreed a contract for internal works, such as kitchen and bathroom upgrades, to Apollo Property Services Group and Mears."

[cwa1] 27/10/2009 08:53

No rivaldo, I don't deal in pocket money trades ;-)

[rivaldo] 27/10/2009 08:44

Glad to hear of it CWA1 - was that your 100k bought at 282p then? :o))

Could see new recent highs over 300p fairly soon if all goes well.

[cwa1] 27/10/2009 08:22

Just in case anyone can't find the RNS without help ;-)



Agree riv, I haven't seen a more upbeat update for many a long day :-) Added a few first thing this morning on the strength of it. Fingers crossed.

[rivaldo] 27/10/2009 07:24

Excellent IMS just out:

ADVFN competitor.uk-wire.com/cgi-bin/articles/200910270700054026B.html

In line with "management" expectations, which is probably better than market expectations. The order book is pretty constant at £1.7 billion (£1.8 billion at the last results), and revenue visibility is almost full this year and up to 72% for next year.

The bid pipeline is massive!

Good to see the Olympics contract in M&E too.

Can't ask for more.

[rivaldo] 07/10/2009 12:07

Yep, this will hopefully continue to be a nice quiet ISAble stock which steadily gains over time - another 30% or so to the broker valuation would do me fine.

I see we have a new major holder over 3%:



Breeden have gone over 3% with 2.366m shares, up from 2.189m shares. Nice.

[chrisfoster] 06/10/2009 19:32

Quiet here, but things are looking good again and I'm back in at 280 after this correction. We didn't break the previous support. Here's hoping for that 362.

[rivaldo] 03/10/2009 14:12

Nice coverage in the Indy today:



"Mears, the social housing and home care group that could claim to be the portfolio's longest-serving constituent, has won the support of stockbroker Brewin Dolphin. Analyst Mark Fleetwood says the shares are a buy and placed a 362p target on them.

He adds: "Mears in our view has unfairly been left behind, but is in excellent shape and is at an exciting stage in its development." His comments helped push the shares above 300p but they have since slipped a few coppers.

Mears joined the portfolio in its early days at 23p. The shares were sold at 71.5p; the price subsequently hit 385p and I recaptured them at 272p. They have since fallen below 200p, but then staged a recovery."

[rivaldo] 02/10/2009 16:20

Yep, but it's a nice accumulation, what with the £60m Sedgfield win only a few days ago. Just adds to the highly visible and secure future income streams.

[cambium] 02/10/2009 08:57

too small to rns Rivaldo now, maybe a few years ago

[rivaldo] 24/9/2009 18:45

This is nice - an RNS to come?



"Bullock and Mears win £65m housing refurb job
24 September, 2009 | By Nick Whitten

Bullock and Mears Group have won a £65 million housing refurbishment contract for Sedgefield Borough Homes.

The partnership will see SBH extend its housing stock beyond the government's Decent Homes standard and lead the implementation of a major improvement programme.

Each of the partner contractors will be delivering approximately half of the improvements which include new kitchens, bathrooms, internal and external doors, roofs, insulation, rewiring and central heating.

SBH director of property services Wayne Harris said: "We have set ourselves ambitious targets and it is essential that we have the right team in place that can deliver.

"The scale of the improvement works is significant, it will take five years in total to complete."

[cornishman33] 18/9/2009 19:28

It has been a long wait, but I am glad to be back in profit again with these.

[5dally] 18/9/2009 16:57

Been in here for a very long time :-)

[parttime] 18/9/2009 16:29

5dally..

I guess that depends on whether youre a trader,in for a quicky or a more long term investor..

But yes, a nice rise nonetheless....

Good luck...