Mitie sells social housing business to Mears Group

The outsourcing firm Mitie has sold its social housing business to the Mears Group in a deal worth up to £35m.

Mite announced to the city this morning it had sold its MPS Housing business for an initial payment of £22.5m, with a deferred consideration of up to £12.5m.

The business employs more than 1,000 people and provides property services to over 30 social housing providers in the UK.

In addition, the business carries out over 265,000 responsive repairs each year, along with 25,000 repairs for critical services delivered 365/24 hours a day to clients.

Initially, housing activities will transfer to a new company, called MPS Housing Limited.

This initial transfer is to enable Mears to buy just the housing services, while other parts of MPS UK will remain with Mitie.

According to Mears, it expects this transaction to complete on the 30 November.

Mitie’s chief executive, Phil Bentley, said the sale ‘will allow Mitie to continue to focus and build scale in its core businesses’.

‘Mears is highly regarded in the social housing sector and has the specialist skills required to deliver to its client base,’ he added.

Mears Group chief executive, David Miles, added: ‘I am delighted with the acquisition of MPS Housing Limited which will further strengthen Mears’ market leadership and contract profile in social housing.

‘Given our strong operational platform and differentiated service delivery, together with our proven ability to turn around underperforming businesses, I am confident that we will deliver significant improvements to contracts, customers, tenants and employees.’