Real estate software company MRI Software has entered into an agreement to buy Castleton Technology, which provides specialist software and services to the social housing sector.
Castleton’s cloud-based technology is used by social housing providers in the UK, Ireland and Australia for building repairs to document management and payment collection. MRI plans to build on Castleton’s capabilities, providing investment and access to global expertise that will accelerate growth.
MRI expects that, upon close, the acquisition will “extend its residential market offering and accelerate the development of Castleton’s cloud-based technologies to serve the needs of social housing providers”.
Patrick Ghilani, CEO of MRI Software, said: “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.”
David Payne, non-executive chairman at Castleton, said: “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. The competitive landscape is changing and, as such, I welcome the opportunity for Castleton shareholders to realise their investment at a premium of 42.9 per cent to yesterday’s [14 April] closing price.”
The acquisition has been unanimously approved by the boards of MRI and Castleton and is pending shareholder approval. Castleton will continue to serve its clients as usual, without interruption.