Park Lawn/Everstory Partners agree on properties sale
Park Lawn Corporation announced yesterday in this press release that they have reached an agreement to sell at least 83 death care properties, consisting of 72 cemeteries and 11 funeral homes to Everstory Partners, the new brand of the former StoneMor company.
Here’s what the press release states: “The divestiture includes 72 cemeteries in Kentucky, Michigan, North Carolina and South Carolina and 11 funeral homes in Kentucky and North Carolina.”
Brad Green
Park Lawn CEO
And here is what Park Lawn Corporation CEO, J. Bradley Green says in his prepared comments contained within the press release: “This transaction represents the divestiture of a portfolio of legacy businesses which, by their nature, do not fit within Park Lawn’s long-term growth strategy. The teams operating these businesses are completely aligned with our vision and mission, and they have been successful in maintaining a level of profitability consistent with the type, size and location of these businesses. Nonetheless, we determined that refining our portfolio in this manner will assist us in improving our margin mix to better align with our long-term strategy. Also, this will allow us to redeploy our capital resources to acquire businesses that offer stronger long-term profit potential. Park Lawn has identified a purchaser who can continue to support and grow these businesses outside of the pressures of the public markets.”
In a release issued on behalf of Everstory Partners, their Chief Investment Officer William Corbett made this comment, “We are excited to add these properties as it aligns with our desire to continue to grow as a private company. The addition of this portfolio puts Everstory in a better position to offer a comprehensive range of cemetery and funeral solutions while expanding our service to new communities and families.”
Everstory Partners is a deathcare company that owns and operates cemetery, funeral and crematory locations throughout the United States and Puerto Rico. According to information on the Everstory Partners website, as of June 13, 2023, they operated 385 death care properties which included 304 cemeteries, 70 funeral homes, and 11 crematories.
According to the Park Lawn Corporation press release “The transaction is valued at approximately US$70 million consisting of US$55 million in cash and the remaining US$15 million in deferred compensation. . . “
Here is the information as released by Everstory Partners
Here is the Everstory Partners website
Here is the Park Lawn Corporation website
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Hi Bryan,
I was curious about that too but, if one reads the press release it tells you. After that, you just have to do a bit of digging (almost a pun there!)
PLC is selling 3 companies they bought in the last 7 years. When public companies buy another company they usually keep that company instead of “transferring” the assets over. I’d assume this would save them money by not having to pay more fees?
In THIS case, that’s handy as they just have to sell these 3 companies which previous mgmt. bought.
-The Park Lawn Cemetery Company (USA), Inc is the easy one…it’s those 28 cemeteries in Mi.
-The next one is Saber Ltd. Most of PLC’s business in KY are cemeteries, as well as a few funeral homes.
-Then Citadel Ltd is PLC’s North and South Carolins’s cemeteries and a few funeral homes.
The surprising and aggressiveness of this sale again tells me Brad has something up his sleeve.
MI, KY, NC and SC were PLC core areas besides TN.
PLC basically has LEFT these 4 states!
From an outsider’s view the last 2 years, it looks like PLC was having trouble finding business to buy at decent prices.
So selling these assets or ANY assets tells me he’s got 1 big deal or a few large deals lined up.
Or why sell them?
Even if they are lower margins and offer less growth.
After all, cemeteries are still part of your business if you’re in the deathcare industry and your after-market share.
*Of note it looked like there were a few combos included in the sale which is surprising as you always want to hang on to them as they offer the most profit potential.
Even though Brad brags about how well they’ve grown the last 7 years, they really haven’t that much except for 2 years. Now he’s just sold 25% of that overall growth.
He’s smart, IMO some big deal is about to happen. We may have to wait til this transaction closes.
If he’s not playing 3D chess and nothing big happens and he’s keeps buying 2-3 funeral homes every quarter. He’ll likely get the boot in 12 months.
PLC shares are very cheap now.
It’s tricky as PLC just sold 25% of their assets, so unless Brad REPLACES that market-share with higher margin profit he”ll look foolish. I don’t think he is.
I’ll give him 3-6 months for him to show us his cards.
Will we have to wait until the end of November for a list of properties. There are several Park Lawn properties around me in Western Kentucky and I wonder if our little town is about to have another “ownership change” to ensure?
Wow! Who had PLC selling 25% of their assets on their bingo card?
This may not look like it now but, I think this is a major growth move for PLC. I think they buy a major asset like NorthStar or go on a buying spree as per their wording in the release. They are seriously cashed up now (they were in pretty good shape before) .
I’ll also put this out there now…I think they re-visit the Carriage deal. Maybe in the form of a merger now or even try to sell themselves to CSV in a re-take over?
I’m not sure what but, I feel it’s going to be big.
If you read Park Lawn reports the past few years you see that their margins were always well beneath that of SCI or CSV. IMO, this was mostly due to PLC’s cemeteries which were dragging them down a bit. Especially, the 28 MI cemeteries (I think previous mgmt. picked them up as they were easy to buy and at the time, PLC was just starting out on the acquisition trail.)
Yet, selling 72 locations equal to 25% of your locations is a spicy meatball for shareholders to swallow.
IMO, the press release mentions it twice. They are about to become extremely aggressive on the acquisition front. Coming so soon after the failure to get Carriage, I think PLC was working on this deal before as a plan B or C.
You try and double your size then 2 weeks after you fail you sell 25%?
No, that doesn’t make sense.
Selling to Everstory Partners (formerly StoneMor) is really interesting. If I was running the shop I would have tried to swap or acquire some Everstory assets as they are likely in the same boat as Carriage and drowning in debt.
PLC or more to the point Brad has put himself out there. PLC shareholders want growth as he’s been promising them the last few years and has not happened. I’ll assume he has a plan to “replace” the lost revenue/assets with more profitable ones as the release said. I’m expecting something BIG in the next week or 2.
Buying 2 homes in smalltown, wherever… every 2 months isn’t going to cut it.
NorthStar, Newcomer or a merger with Rollings Funeral Service with it’s 80+ locations.
Or could it be the ever-elusive “I’m not selling” Arbor?
A big elephant in the room and I’m not sure how this affects everything is we are 2 months away from the 10-year FTC ban on SCI for buying more businesses after they bought Stewart Enterprises.
*I personally STILL can’t believe the FTC let them buy Loewen / Alderwood assets…let alone Stewart. Interesting the the Loewen Group movie just came out. The SCI story is the sequel?
Is PLC trying to get something done BEFORE SCI is fully allowed to buy big again (noting that SCI has been buying many businesses over the last few years.)
IMO, it’s popcorn time. Let’s see what Brad has planned here. The next few weeks will show us just how clever…or not he is.
Good luck to all parties and I think whatever it is, it should hopefully be good for the industry.