Contractor announces halt to PV work

Mears announced in an interim management statement today that it would immediately cease all work on PV as the ‘commercial attractions’ no longer existed.

The government announced last week that FIT payments will drop 43.3p to 21p from December 12 but to 16.8p for multiple, or ‘aggregated’, installations of solar photovoltaic panels.

In its interim statement, Mears said the decision would mean a £2 million write-off for the company and a £2.8 million reduction in expected operating profit for the year.

It said: ‘Since the decision to substantially reduce the PV FIT, and more importantly to bring forward the effective date, the board has been evaluating the business case for PV and conclude that the prudent course of action is to cease these activities immediately, as the commercial attractions that led us to explore the PV space, in the short term, no longer exist.

‘As a direct result, operating profit is likely to fall short of our previous expectations in the region of £2.8 million for the current year.

‘In addition we believe it appropriate to write-off costs relating to the site set-up, system design and installation amounting to approximately £2.0 million which are now considered irrecoverable.’

Despite the disappointment around PV installation, the company said it was continuing to experience solid trading in the social housing and care sectors.

Mears announced new social housing contracts worth £109 million, which pushed the value of the company’s social housing contracts awarded in the last eight months to £350 million.

The group also announced it had completed a refinancing of its banking facilities and signed a new £120 million unsecured facility maturing in July 2016.

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