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Mears Group sees shares price rise by 60% in past year

DIRECTOR DEALINGS - PERRY GOURLEY

LONG term investors in Mears Group might be a little more generous with their Christmas present buying this year.

The support services group has seen its share price rise by more than 60% since January as it continues to benefit from strong growth in the outsourcing market, particularly in the social housing sector.

Last month the company announced two new partnership deals to carry out repairs and improvements to housing stock in Newcastle and Peterborough, helping the shares rise to a year high.

The two deals, stretching over five and six year periods, are worth around £85m to Mears. Chairman Bob Holt said they demonstrated the company’s leading position in the market.

The company’s latest interim results showed pre-tax profits up by 40%, helping it achieve an impressive annual profit growth of 42% since listing on AIM in 1996. Despite the strong share price rise this year, director Phillip Molloy, already a major shareholder with a stake of more than 6%, upped his holding with an investment of more than £525,000. He now holds 3.75 million shares in the company.

• AIM-listed pharmaceutical group Sinclair Pharma saw non-executive director Andrew Sinclair buy 100,000 ordinary shares at 106.5p. His latest purchase takes his holding to 10.5%.

• Sinclair Pharma, which earlier this year received EU regulatory approval for its T-GO treatment for throat conditions, recently said trading in the year to date was in line with expectations.

• David Ross, chairman of transport group National Express, has continued to increase his holding in the company.

Ross invested £1.36m by buying 180,000 shares at 758p each and taking his total stake in the group to just over 600,000 shares.

Ross, who joined the board in 2001 and is also chief operating officer at Carphone Warehouse and a director of Big Yellow Group, also bought 10,000 shares in October, 75,000 in August and 162,000 in July.

• The new chief executive of dental group Oasis Healthcare has bought 165,000 shares in the company at 10.50p for just over £17,000. It was his second purchase after buying 35,000 shares at 16p in August.

Earlier this month the group announced narrowed first half losses after it said it had seen an increased demand for its services.