Speechly Bircham has advised the Civica Group (an investee company of OMERS Private Equity) on its acquisition of CCS IT Limited (trading as Keystone Asset Management Solutions), the specialist software provider.

Keystone, based in Colchester, provides application software and related services predominantly for the UK social housing sector. Its integrated product suite is used by its customers to ensure the efficient and effective administration of housing stock including management, planned maintenance, inspections and component accounting.

Civica does not currently have any similar asset management application of its own. The acquisition of Keystone therefore brings specialist technology to the Group which strengthens Civica's ability to help organisations reduce cost and risk and enhance tenant services in particular through better management of existing and future expenditure.

The Speechlys core team comprised Malcolm MacDougall and Holly Sage, on the corporate side, with teams from tax, IP and employment also involved.