Mears Regulatory News (MER)

Mears Group PLC

("Mears", the "Group", or the "Company")

Launch of Share Buyback Programme of up to £20m

Mears (LSE: MER) announces that the Board has approved an additional return of surplus capital of up to £20 million to shareholders to be implemented through a new share buyback programme of Mears' ordinary shares (the 'Third Buyback Programme').

During the course of 2023, the Group successfully completed two buyback programmes, which saw the purchase and cancellation of 12.2m Ordinary shares of 1p each at an average price of 272.7p, representing c11.0% of the Group's issued share capital at the start of the 2023 year, a return of surplus capital of £33.2m. In addition, over the course of 2023, the Group's Employee Benefit Trust purchased 1.7m shares at an average price of 276.7p which will be utilised in the future to settle share-based employee remuneration reducing the dilutive impact of such instruments. 

Mears has entered into non-discretionary arrangements with Deutsche Numis Securities Limited ('Numis') and Panmure Gordon (UK) Limited ('Panmure Gordon') to conduct the Buyback Programme on its behalf from 20 February 2024. Under these arrangements, Numis and Panmure Gordon will make trading decisions in relation to the buyback of the company's ordinary shares independently of the Group within the programme terms and pre-set parameters.

The purpose of this Third Buyback Programme is to return additional surplus capital to shareholders and reduce the Group's share capital. As such, all ordinary shares repurchased by the Group under this Third Buyback Programme will be cancelled.

Share purchases under the New Buyback Programme will take place in open market transactions and may be made from time to time depending on market conditions, share price and trading volumes. The New Buyback Programme will be effected under the authority granted by shareholders at the General Meeting held on 12 February 2024. The Buyback Programme will be conducted within the parameters prescribed by the Market Abuse Regulation 596/2014 and the Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2016/1052 (also as in force in the UK, from time to time, including, where relevant, pursuant to the UK's European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 and the Market Abuse (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019) as well as applicable laws and the regulations of the UK Financial Conduct Authority (including Chapter 12 of the Listing Rules). 

The joint brokers, Deutsche Numis and Panmure Gordon, will monitor the level of liquidity in the issued Ordinary Shares and may determine that, in order to proceed with the New Buyback Programme in an effective and timely manner, the New Buyback Programme may on any given trading day exceed 25 per cent but remain below 50 per cent of the average daily trading volume. Should this occur, the Group may not benefit from the exemption contained in Article 5(1) in MAR.

Any repurchase of shares will be announced no later than 7:30 a.m. on the business day following the calendar day on which the repurchase occurred.

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About Mears

Mears is the leading provider of services to the Affordable Housing sector, providing a range of services to individuals within their homes. We manage and maintain around 450,000 homes across the UK and work predominantly with Central Government and Local Government typically through long-term contracts. We equally consider the residents of the homes that we manage and maintain to be our customers, and we take pride in the high levels of customer satisfaction that we achieve.

Mears currently employs around 5,500 people and provides services in every region of the UK. In partnership with our Housing clients, we provide property management and maintenance services. Mears has extended its activities to provide broader housing solutions to solve the challenge posed by the lack of affordable housing and to provide accommodation and support for the most vulnerable.

We focus on long-term outcomes for people rather than short-term solutions and invest in innovations that have a positive impact on people's quality of life and on their communities' social, economic, and environmental wellbeing. Our innovative approaches and market leading positions are intended to create value for our customers and the people they serve while also driving sustainable financial returns for our providers of capital, especially our shareholders.