LONDON, UK: Mears Group Plc, the leading provider of services to the housing sector in the UK, announced the acquisition of IRT Surveys Limited, for a total consideration of up to £4.1 million.

Headquartered in Dundee, IRT provides a range of data-led services focussed on addressing fuel poverty, decarbonisation and energy efficiency. IRT has developed over several years a proprietary technology platform (“DREam”).

DREam has been engineered to simplify and accelerate the domestic property retrofit journey, by assessing the energy performance of housing portfolios, optimising budgets and providing solutions on the most efficient way to complete retrofits, within the affordable housing sector.

IRT is well-known and respected in the sector, with over 30 Registered Social Housing provider clients spanning the UK and having surveyed over 350,000 domestic properties. IRT will continue to service existing IRT clients.

In addition, IRT has an active sales pipeline underpinning its growth forecast, which will be enhanced further upon joining the Group and through the opportunities that will subsequently exist.

The Board believes there are significant opportunities in the structurally growing field of carbon reduction, which will be complementary and additive to the services already provided by Mears.

The requirement to decarbonise an ageing housing stock, especially in affordable housing, is accelerating in the current environment given the significant increases in energy costs, and the agenda to meet the Government’s targets of achieving net zero by 2050.

Acquiring the innovative IRT platform is an important part of the Group’s retrofit solution and will enable Mears to conduct stock analysis modelling for carbon reduction work, enabling opportunities to be progressed quickly, and to help identify and access grant funding support available.

The Acquisition will provide Mears new skills and capabilities in this area, bringing new expertise in-house, supporting pre-sales activity and helping to unlock the Group’s ability to deliver carbon retrofit work, which has been identified as a significant market.

IRT is being acquired on a cash free, debt free basis, consisting of an initial consideration of £3.0m, and subsequent contingent consideration of up to £1.1m, payable over a two-year period following completion, subject to satisfactory performance against business development targets. The Acquisition consideration will be settled in cash and funded out of Mears’ existing cash resources.

In the year to 31 December 2021, IRT reported revenues of £0.4m and an operating loss of £0.1m. The business is on-track to deliver revenues of £0.8m in FY22 and an operating profit of £0.2m.

Commenting on the acquisition, David Miles, Chief Executive Officer of Mears, said: “I am delighted to have completed the acquisition of IRT, as we look at ways of providing greater scale to Mears, drive our ESG agenda, and provide a broader range of services to new and existing clients. This deal is completely aligned with our strategy, utilising innovation and technology to drive positive change in the sphere of carbon reduction. We are excited to welcome IRT and its employees into the Group.”

Mears is the leading provider of services to the Affordable Housing sector in the UK: responsible for the maintenance of c.10% of the UK’s social housing stock; and managing over 10,000 homes for local and central government. www.mearsgroup.co.uk