Mears reports rise in half year profits

SOCIAL housing and home care provider Mears reported a 42 per cent increase in first-half pre-tax profit and said it was seeing unprecedented levels of opportunity in the public sector.
By The Newsroom
Published 17th Aug 2010, 10:39 BST

The company, which services hundreds of thousands of homes owned by local authorities and housing associations, said it had achieved record contract wins in the period, worth in excess of 500m, as cash-strapped local authorities look to outsource in the face of government cuts.

"The opportunity for Mears has never been better. We are (the) 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," Chief Executive Bob Holt said.

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Mr Holt added that he believed proposed changes to housing benefit will "promote the migration away from private dwellings towards social housing."

Pre-tax profit rose to 13.2m from 9.3m the year before as it benefited from a first-time contribution from home care provider Supporta, which it acquired in January.

The company's performance has contrasted with that of its stricken rival Connaught, which has seen the value of its shares plunge almost 95 per cent since issuing a profit warning in June and saying it was in dire need of cash as cutbacks by the new coalition government hit its business.

The company is paying an interim dividend of 1.9pp, up 19 per cent on the year before.