Haydon sale hits profit at Mears

Social housing provider Mears has reported that its pre-tax profit was nearly wiped out by costs incurred from the disposal of its mechanical and electrical business Haydon.

In its results for the year to 31 December 2013, Mears reported a pre-tax profit of just £277,000, down from £18m the year before.

However, this was largely due to a £18.8m exceptional loss from the sale of its Haydon mechanical and electrical business to Haydon’s management in November 2013.

When the Haydon figures, which also included an operational loss of £2.6m in 2013 and £1.8m in 2012, were stripped out Mears Group reported a rise in pre-tax profit to £22m in 2013 from £20m in 2012.

Because of the structure of the deal to sell Haydon, Mears could yet recover up to £19m of the costs of the sale.

However, the firm estimated it was likely to recover just £6m between now and 2018.

Mears Group reported revenue from continuing operations, which excludes the Haydon business, of £866m in 2013, up from £617m in 2012.

Chief executive of Mears Group David Miles said the opportunities for the firm in the social housing market “remained very strong”.

He said: “With Mears now focused solely on social housing and care, I am delighted to report that we continue to achieve high levels of service delivery and customer satisfaction. The quality of our service delivery continues to be our key differentiator and underpins our success in bidding new contracts in both of our core growth sectors.”