Mears Regulatory News (MER)

14 Jan 2008 07:00

Mears Group PLC14 January 2008 Mears Group PLC ("Mears" or "the Company") New contract wins in Care Division. Mears Group is pleased to report significant new contract wins by its CareDivision, Careforce, which has been particularly successful in securing futurerevenues in two areas where existing contracts, having come to the end of theirnatural term, were being retendered. In both cases, Careforce has beensuccessful in winning higher volumes of the outsourced work at similar orincreased billing rates. In Rotherham, Careforce has won the maximum possible allocation of three blocksand in Hertfordshire it has won contracts which will lead to significantlyincreased volumes and will run to at least 2015 with possible extensions to2018. The anticipated aggregate forward sales value of the new contracts inRotherham and Hertfordshire is in the region of £34 million during the basiccontract terms or around £52 million if the options to extend the contracts aretaken up. Since Mears acquired Careforce Group plc in April 2007 the Company has completedon 8 businesses for an aggregate initial purchase consideration of £10.3million. The Company believes that this series of acquisitions will continue toprovide the necessary scale for Mears to influence the way in which domiciliarycare is procured and delivered. Mears Group Chairman, Bob Holt, commented: "I am delighted to be able to report these significant gains so soon after ouracquisition of Careforce last year. I believe that they confirm that our BestValue approach and our commitment to Partnership Working resonate well with theexpectations and responsibilities of our Local Authority partners. I believethey also provide further evidence of the consolidation taking place in thedomiciliary care market which is leading to the placing of outsourced servicesby local authorities with a smaller number of larger providers such asourselves." ENDS NOTES TO EDITORS: Mears Group PLC is a leading provider of a range of services to sociallandlords. The Group is also a major supplier of domiciliary care in the United Kingdom following the acquisition of Careforce Group plc in April 2007. The social housing services provided include response maintenance, voidrefurbishment, planned preventative maintenance, improvements to meet the'Decent Homes Standard' and estate management. Profits have shown an annual compound growth rate of 40% since Mears was listedon AIM in October 1996. The Group was awarded the AIM Company of the year awardin 2003. Enquiries: Mears Group PLC Bob Holt, Chief Executive 07778 798 816 Mike Rogers, Executive Director 07768 685 283 Andrew Smith, Executive Director 07712 866 461 Threadneedle Communications Trevor Bass/Alex White 020 7936 9666 Nominated adviser to Mears Group PLC - Investec Keith Anderson/Michael Ansell 020 7597 5970 This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange