Share tips: A well-looked after care provider

With local councils looking to cut costs, and a steadily ageing population, now is a great time to jump onboard with this social housing and care provider, says Paul Hill.

Social housing and domiciliary care provider Mears Group reported a hefty £2.7bn order book, along with a £3bn order pipeline, in a trading statement last week. Of this sum, £1.6bn relates to contract awards within the next 12 months. This is equivalent to 95% of 2011 revenues and reflects the importance of its repairs arm (71% of sales). It maintains a UK portfolio of 500,000 houses owned by local authorities and housing associations. Work is carried out under long-term agreements to take care of all the little niggles in council rented properties. These include blocked drains, broken windows, detached tiles and broken-down boilers.

Performance in its domiciliary care division is also solid. It employs 7,000 carers, often women working flexible hours, who call on 20,000 residents requiring support. Clients are typically old and, in some cases, infirm. Mears' staff ensure that they are well fed and looked after. The firm competes with the likes of Allied Healthcare, Care UK, and Nestor Healthcare. Within the social housing sector its main rivals are Inspace, Kier, Lovells and Mitie.

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Paul gained a degree in electrical engineering and went on to qualify as a chartered management accountant. He has extensive corporate finance and investment experience and is a member of the Securities Institute.

Over the past 16 years Paul has held top-level financial management and M&A roles for blue-chip companies such as O2, GKN and Unilever. He is now director of his own capital investment and consultancy firm, PMH Capital Limited.

Paul is an expert at analysing companies in new, fast-growing markets, and is an extremely shrewd stock-picker.