US-based real estate software firm MRI Software has entered into an agreement to acquire Castleton Technology, a provider of specialist software and services to the social housing sector for £82.8m.
The deals is hoped to extend MRI Software’s residential market offering and accelerate the development of Castleton’s cloud-based technologies to serve the needs of social housing providers.
The acquisition has been approved by the boards of MRI and Castleton and is pending shareholder approval.
“The acquisition of Castleton is a significant development for our business, delivering us scale in the UK real estate market and social housing sector in particular – providing a platform to further accelerate our growth globally,” said Patrick Ghilani, CEO of MRI Software.
“A combined MRI and Castleton will be extremely well equipped to address the varying needs and evolving business models of the UK and Australian social housing sectors, with a comprehensive and flexible product portfolio.”
Castleton’s cloud-based technology is used by social housing providers in the UK, Republic of Ireland and Australia for customer service and business management.
“Castleton has performed well since embarking on the strategy in 2013 to build a public sector-focused software and managed service business, growing organically as well as through a series of acquisitions,” said David Payne, Non-Executive Chairman of Castleton.
The acquisition is the second in a month for MRI Software, having bought Orchard Information Systems, a specialist provider of software solutions for the UK social housing sector at the start of April.