Insider Media Limited

Who?
Mears Group

Did what?
Looks certain to complete its £27m takeover of Bromsgrove-based homecare service provider Supporta after it revealed this morning that it had received the support of almost 95 per cent of shareholders for its bid.

What does this mean?
As part of the deal, Supporta’s board of directors have tendered their resignation, which has been accepted by Mears. Supporta has appointed Bob Holt and Andrew Smith as new directors with immediate effect. Supporta works with 52 local authorities and 18 primary care trusts to provide care to over 3,500 service users.

Who advised?
Collins Stewart provided financial advice to Mears.

Insider comment:
Gloucestershire-based Mears, which primarily provides maintenance and repairs for social housing, first went into the homecare market via the £22m acquisition of Careforce in 2007. “We’ve had a long-term strategy of building a market-leading position in this area and this is one of the final stages,” said Bob Holt, chairman and chief executive. "It is not necessarily about synergies, though combining two public companies always leads to some. Supporta is an operationally good business which works in different regions to us. In Scotland and London they have a much bigger presence than we do.”

Supporta will now make an application to the London Stock Exchange for the cancellation of trading in Supporta Shares on AIM, anticipated to take effect after 9 March.

Mears Group has made an application for the listing of 3,160,847 ordinary shares to trade on the London Stock Exchange's Main Market for listed securities and on the PLUS-Listed Market. The application is being made to satisfy the consideration in relation to the recommended offer for Supporta for those acceptances received to date other than for which admission was granted on 28 January 2010. The shares allotted will rank pari passu with the existing shares in issue. Admission is expected to be effective from 10 February 2010.