Mears Group upbeat for full year

Social housing and care provider Mears said it expects to report full year results in line with management expectations, coupled with a very strong cash performance.

Mears said solid trading has continued in both core divisions of Social Housing and Care, despite the record number of mobilisations during the year and a significant amount of management time devoted to the Morrison acquisition.

The group's order book has increased to £3.8bn from £2.6bn, providing forward visibility on 88% of consensus forecast revenue for 2013. The figure includes the acquisition of Morrison.

Mears said the trading performance of Morrison in the period between completion and December 31st 2012 is in line with management expectations.

Overall its bid pipeline remains robust at in excess of £3bn, it said.

However Mears cautioned that its non-core M&E business experienced difficult trading conditions, particularly in the final quarter, and is expected to show an operating loss for the 2012 year.

CJ