Mears Share Discussion Threads

[rivaldo] 17/8/2010 07:26

Except for the outlook statement, which is very, very positive. Bye bye:

"Group Outlook:

· Unprecedented levels of opportunity in the public sector
· Order book of £2.6 billion (2009: £1.8 billion)
· 92% visibility of consensus forecast revenue for 2010 and 81% for 2011
· Social Housing - bid pipeline £3.0 billion (2009: £2.9 billion)

· New maintenance contracts being mobilised during the second half of the year will take the total order value of contracts mobilised in 2010 to in excess of £1 billion"

[dnfa1975] 17/8/2010 07:13

great! thanks riv good stuff. But i am staying out for the moment as results are always backward looking. Best.

[rivaldo] 17/8/2010 07:08

Agreed pstubbs50 - excellent results, with the fallout from CNT about to benefit MER big time hopefully.

By the way....

Social housing margins - up to 5.4% from 4.7%
Domiciliary care margins - up to 7.5% from 5.7%

[dnfa1975] 17/8/2010 07:00

can you check the operating margins and see if they have gone down please

[pstubbs50] 17/8/2010 06:58

Thanks Rivaldo, I've filtered dfna now.

Like I said, I think these are fantastic results at any time. At this particular point in time they are good enough to take Mears to much higher levels. imho of course...

[dnfa1975] 17/8/2010 06:57

im hardly knocking it. i am being a realist about the difficulties facing the public sector

[rivaldo] 17/8/2010 06:56

I'm afraid dfna75 is well known across other threads as a serial ramper/deramper who's best ignored. He was incredibly bullish on MER only weeks ago! Shows you what a change of agenda can do....

A reminder of today's outlook and statement:

"Group Outlook:

· Unprecedented levels of opportunity in the public sector

· Order book of £2.6 billion (2009: £1.8 billion)

· 92% visibility of consensus forecast revenue for 2010 and 81% for 2011

· Social Housing - bid pipeline £3.0 billion (2009: £2.9 billion)

· New maintenance contracts being mobilised during the second half of the year will take the total order value of contracts mobilised in 2010 to in excess of £1 billion

Bob Holt, Chairman, said:

"The opportunity for Mears has never been better. Our order book is solid and stands at £2.6 billion with a sales pipeline of £3.0 billion and operating cash conversion at 94% of profit. Mears continues to build on that same long term platform for profitable growth which has been the cornerstone of our success.

"We are market leader in Social Housing where the significant majority of our revenues are non-discretionary spend for services which our clients have a legal obligation to provide. The proposed changes to the system for housing benefit will in our opinion promote the migration away from private dwellings towards social housing. The changes to the housing finance system will also provide local authorities opportunities for further investment in their housing stock which can only be positive for a leading provider like Mears. In addition, the majority of our Social Housing revenue is derived from Housing Associations who are less affected by any reduction in public sector spending.

"The Group has a clear strategy of building market leader positions in each of its core businesses. We consider it to be of paramount importance to be recognised as the leading provider of quality services. The quality of the management team acquired with Supporta has exceeded our expectations and we now have the structure in place to continue to build our Domiciliary Care business model.""

[pstubbs50] 17/8/2010 06:54

all known already and all factored in.

What I never understand is why people sell their shares and then continue to knock it? Why not use your energy finding a share to buy?

[pstubbs50] 17/8/2010 06:52

From dnfa1975 "isnt it a bit disingenuous not to mention the very poor public sector spending outlook or have i missed that in the statement"

You've missed it.

Looks like you're hobby is shorting or just calling the negatives on everything. I see you're doing the same in Blinkx.

A very poor call from you re: Mears - it was obvious the results would be great. Should get to 300 now, and no reason not to hit 350 again. Their future looks better than ever.

I was confident that they would deliver again, but this is better than I expected. I'm buying in again today and will hold for years...

[stevemarkus] 17/8/2010 06:45

Yes, nice results. Happy to continue holding here.

Steve.

[yoyoy] 17/8/2010 06:37

increase of £5m since Dec in pension liabilities. Now stands at over £8m. Whats that about.

Do they still have a Defined Benefits scheme or is this legacy?

No mention in the Interims of the changeb which surprises me

[rivaldo] 17/8/2010 06:32

And then there's the superb visibility going forward two years:

"Group Outlook:

· Unprecedented levels of opportunity in the public sector

· Order book of £2.6 billion (2009: £1.8 billion)

· 92% visibility of consensus forecast revenue for 2010 and 81% for 2011

· Social Housing - bid pipeline £3.0 billion (2009: £2.9 billion)

· New maintenance contracts being mobilised during the second half of the year will take the total order value of contracts mobilised in 2010 to in excess of £1 billion"

[rivaldo] 17/8/2010 06:30

Bizarre that you missed all these long references to MER's outlook being strong, spending being non-discretionary, Housing Associations being less affected....

"The demand for our services continues to be strong. Our two growth markets, Social Housing and Domiciliary Care, are defensive sectors where spend is largely non-discretionary. We have a number of opportunities with existing and prospective customers to unlock significant additional revenue."

"The significant majority of our Social Housing revenues are non-discretionary spend for services which our clients have a legal obligation to provide. The proposed changes to the system for housing benefit will in our opinion promote the migration away from private dwellings towards social housing. The changes to the housing finance system will provide local authorities opportunities to invest further in their housing stock which can only be positive for a leading provider like Mears. In addition, a significant proportion of our Social Housing revenue is derived from Housing Associations who are less affected by any reduction in public sector spending. Our order book is solid and stands at £2.6 billion with a sales pipeline of £3.0 billion. The well publicised problems in the sector provide a great opportunity for Mears as market leader. We continue to be highly selective on our bidding approach looking to only work on long term partnership situations."

[dnfa1975] 17/8/2010 06:19

isnt it a bit disingenuous not to mention the very poor public sector spending outlook or have i missed that in the statement

[rivaldo] 17/8/2010 06:13

Excellent results today. EPS up 15% - and the divi up 19%!



Brilliant cash conversion at 94%.

And the outlook could not be more bullish - particularly given CNT's internal problems and MER being the market leader:

"Bob Holt, Chairman, said:

"The opportunity for Mears has never been better. Our order book is solid and stands at £2.6 billion with a sales pipeline of £3.0 billion and operating cash conversion at 94% of profit. Mears continues to build on that same long term platform for profitable growth which has been the cornerstone of our success.

"We are market leader in Social Housing where the significant majority of our revenues are non-discretionary spend for services which our clients have a legal obligation to provide. The proposed changes to the system for housing benefit will in our opinion promote the migration away from private dwellings towards social housing. The changes to the housing finance system will also provide local authorities opportunities for further investment in their housing stock which can only be positive for a leading provider like Mears. In addition, the majority of our Social Housing revenue is derived from Housing Associations who are less affected by any reduction in public sector spending.

"The Group has a clear strategy of building market leader positions in each of its core businesses. We consider it to be of paramount importance to be recognised as the leading provider of quality services. The quality of the management team acquired with Supporta has exceeded our expectations and we now have the structure in place to continue to build our Domiciliary Care business model.""

[tom.b] 16/8/2010 12:13

The news for tomorrow must be good and already available to a few... watch it go from here....good luck and congrats to all who hold...DYOR

[pstubbs50] 13/8/2010 08:31

I'm always nervous! But very very comfortable with Mears - been with them since the 25p days in AIM. They are so consistent in delivering great results.

I'm surprised anyone is out tbh - Mears have floated between 220-350 for too long. Finally the Connaught situation gives a real chance for a major push.

[rivaldo] 13/8/2010 08:27

Let's remind ourselves of the very strong trading statement issued only a month ago - next week's results should reiterate this bullish outlook:



"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

· £2.5 billion order book and £3 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.""

[dnfa1975] 13/8/2010 08:15

im surprised neither of you is Very nervous

[rivaldo] 12/8/2010 16:19

Agreed about the 300p price target and excellent prospects.

It does occur to me that although the results are expected on Tuesday, the reason MER haven't notified the market is because there may be developments going on with regard to CNT's social housing division....

Exciting times coming soon, potentially anyway. And if no deal, the results should be enough to get the market going imho.

[pstubbs50] 12/8/2010 10:47

"the fact that they havent announced the results date to the market like they usually do is a bit suspect. Im out for the moment."

Maybe, but I have faith in Mears - a great record of notifying shareholders, and of results. I am optimistic about Tuesday. 300p target over the next month or so for me.

[dnfa1975] 12/8/2010 09:25

the fact that they havent announced the results date to the market like they usually do is a bit suspect. Im out for the moment.

[tom.b] 12/8/2010 08:51

Well there is no telling what the market does... here is a great company who has everything Connaught needs and a positive announcemnet for next tuesday that should bring them over £3.00 ..and it's down nearly 2% ..crazy..