Australian mid market private equity firm Propel Investments today announced it had entered into a conditional agreement to sell its 77% ownership interest in leading Trans Tasman funeral operator, Bledisloe Group Holdings Pty Ltd, to the ASX listed funeral operator, InvoCare Limited. The agreed enterprise value for 100% of Bledisloe is $114.0 million less net debt, subject to completion adjustments.

"The opportunity to build the business both organically and through acquisition has been well executed by Bledisloe’s management team." said Peter Dowding, a Managing Director at Propel and a Director of Bledisloe.

"We are grateful to all the staff at Bledisloe, including the management team, led by Managing Director Phil Wikman, for their significant contributions in making Bledisloe such a success," said Mr Dowding.

Propel has agreed to take part of its sale proceeds in the form of InvoCare shares which will result in Propel owning less than 5% of InvoCare’s issued capital.  Albin Kurti, a Managing Director at Propel, said Propel was pleased to be retaining an ongoing investment exposure to the funeral home industry.

“The provision of funeral and related services to families is an essential service.  The aging populations and highly fragmented funeral markets in Australia, New Zealand and Singapore should enable InvoCare to continue growing organically and via strategic acquisitions such as Bledisloe."

The sale of Bledisloe, which is expected to be completed by March 2011, follows Propel’s recent sale of Hudson Building Supplies to Crane Distribution Limited.

ENDS

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