MRI Software has completed its acquisition of Castleton Technology Plc, a UK-based provider of specialist software and services for the social housing sector, after receiving shareholder approval. MRI’s acquisition of Castleton, along with that of Orchard Information Systems in March, extends its offering in the social housing market in the UK, Ireland and Australia.
The combination is intended to boost MRI’s ability to empower social housing providers to adopt digital innovations and customer-centric technologies, while accelerating the development of cloud-based solutions for the sector.
“The acquisition of Castleton is an important step in our drive to deliver greater scale and broaden our offering in the UK housing sector,” MRI Software CEO Patrick Ghilani said in a statement. “The combination of Castleton and Orchard also extends our comprehensive residential market proposition, MRI Living, and brings together invaluable industry experience and expertise to drive further innovation and accelerate the delivery of new advancements to social/affordable housing operators and residential property managers in multiple regions across the globe.”
Social housing providers in the UK, Ireland and Australia employ Castleton’s solutions to enhance customer service and business management – from building repairs and document management to customer relationship management and payment collection.
As a PropTech category pioneer, MRI is constantly looking for ways to promote and deliver web-based capabilities and innovative technologies that enable its clients to keep pace with real estate market trends, such as today’s increasing focus on the resident experience in property management.
The acquisition is intended to enhance MRI’s ability to provide solutions across a range of asset classes and portfolios, both residential and mixed use – covering everything from back-office elements that include property management, facilities management and accounting to front-end functions such as customer engagement, self-service maintenance requests and automated payments.
MRI’s ecosystem of integrated products and applications enables residential operators to select the best option for their unique business requirements and better manage every aspect of the resident life cycle.
Castleton Technology CEO Dean Dickinson added: “Joining the MRI family is a great opportunity for Castleton and our clients, providing us with the breadth and global expertise to move to the next stage in our growth and evolution. MRI will build on Castleton’s capabilities and we’ll be able to leverage our combined resources to continue addressing the varying needs of the social housing sector in the regions we serve.”
The acquisition was unanimously approved by the boards of MRI and Castleton before receiving shareholder approval. Castleton expects to continue to serve its clients, as usual, without interruption.
