Tech company bounces back after acquisition

SINCE it was acquired in March, Driffield company Opus, a software developer for the social housing market, has “performed strongly” with new contracts of £500,000.

In March, Midlands-based Castleton Technology, a software provider for the not-for-profit industry acquired Opus for a consideration up to £1.5m, dependant upon performance.

Following the buy out, Opus secured six customers, which combined brought half a million pounds into the business.

It increased available figures of EBIDTA by 300% on the previous 12 month period, reaching £200,000, and contributed to their parent company’s bank of public sector IP.

The earn-out that was put in place at the time of the acquisition has been achieved and now £400,000 of convertible loan notes have been issued to the vendors of Opus. Castleton said it would pay £100,000 in cash to the vendors over the next year.

At the time of the acquisition, Castleton also bought Keylogic. The Sutton Coldfield company reported that following the acquisitions, revenue increased to £8.47m for the six months to 30 September, up from £1.86m the year before.

Castleton did however make a corresponding pre-tax loss of £1.40m, a further loss on last year.

David Payne, chairman of Castleton, said: “Castleton has now put the building blocks in place to become a leading supplier to the public and not-for-profit sectors, specifically the social housing market.

“The integration of the businesses we’ve acquired has progressed well.”