Since they sold Batesville in February 2023, Hillenbrand Industries has been out of the Death Care business.  But, if you are a long-time member of the Death Care community the name Hillenbrand has been synonymous with the funeral profession since 1906 when John A. Hillenbrand purchased the Batesville Casket Company and founded “Hillenbrand” where the casket business became the foundation.

 

However, Batesville was off-loaded from Hillenbrand in February 2023 and just this week it was announced in this press release that the balance of Hillenbrand Industries was being sold to an affiliate of Lone Star Funds or $32 per share which will equal an enterprise value of about $3.8 billion.

 

In the press release Helen Cornell, Chairperson of the Hillenbrand Board of Directors makes this comment, “We are pleased to reach this agreement with Lone Star, which delivers immediate and certain cash value to our shareholders at a substantial premium to recent trading, and positions Hillenbrand to continue meeting and exceeding customers’ needs for highly-engineered, mission-critical processing equipment and solutions.”

 

And, Hillenbrand President and CEO Kim Ryan makes this comment, “Over the past several years, Hillenbrand has made tremendous progress transforming into a pure-play industrial company, reshaping our portfolio, and making strategic investments in the business.”

 

Here is the website of Lone Star Funds.

Here is Funeral Director Daily’s article on the 2023 sale of Batesville

 

Funeral Director Daily take:  I grew up being the “funeral director’s kid” in our small community.  And, that designation had responsibilities that went with it that we learned a a very young age —  be nice to everybody, follow the rules, be polite, respect adults, and on and on. . . .

 

We were never the “cool kids” and the funeral business didn’t seem very exciting to our friends who liked the automobile dealerships and other exciting consumer products more.  But my dad always told us that owning the funeral home was “an honorable” profession and one could build a good life and business value “a nickel at a time”.

 

I can’t help have those thoughts when I look at Hillenbrand first selling Batesville and now selling the rest of the company to private equity buyers.  I’m no expert on the management of the company but when I look at the last couple of years for Hillenbrand it appears to me that they sold Batesville, which in my book was the “nickel at a time” honorable and boring cash-machine, and then as President and CEO Ryan stated, transformed the company into a “pure play industrial company”.

 

When I look back at the stock price of Hillenbrand, it appears that it was hovering at about $47-48 per share (according to Yahoo Finance) at the time of the Batesville sale and Hillenbrand just accepted an offer of $32 per share as a “pure-play industrial company”.  To shareholders that’s about a 33% loss in shareholder stock value in just the past 2-3 years.

 

I wonder if they ever think that they sold the wrong company when they sold Batesville back in 2023?

 

Another company that may be in the same boat?:  I look at Matthews International as another public company with somewhat the same dilemma.  They do about 40-60% of their revenue in their Memorial division which includes Aurora Caskets, Dodge Company, and Matthews cremation among other products.  In the company’s 3Q 2025 Report,the company actually reports $203 million in Memorialization sales with total company sales for the quarter at $349 million, making Memorialization about 58% of incoming revenues.

 

They also have a promising and potential fast-growing division that deals with electrode batteries and other indsutrial products.

 

One can envision a future where Matthews liquidates the perceived “dull” Memorial division to concentrate on the exciting and potential growth of what they call their Industrial Technologies segment.

 

Maybe I’m not your typical investor, but in many situations I have no problem saying “Boring is good”.

Here is information on Matthews Memorialization segment.

Here is information on Matthews Industrial Technology segment.

 

More news from the world of Death Care:

• Against a school district’s wishes, the South Side is getting a new cemetery.  San Antonia Report (TX)
• British Columbia funeral homes say provincial burial support falls thousands short of covering costs.  CBC News (Canada)
• “Natural” burial ground faces stiff opposition in Oro-Medonte.  Barrie Today (Ontario, Canada)
• Dozens escort unclaimed cremated remains of veteran to final resting place.  Video news story and print article.  KCRG Channel 9 – Cedar Rapids (IA)

 

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