Cemetery Operator Buys 22 Properties in Four States

This will add North Carolina to the 12 states in which StoneMor already operates and bring its cemetery portfolio to 154 properties in 13 states. The company will pay nearly $6.8 million in cash and $5.9 million in StoneMor LP units. The number of units will be determined based on the unit closing price two business days before the transaction is completed. The buyer will also receive the merchandise and service liabilities associated with pre-arranged bonded contracts on the properties. The transaction is expected to close next month.

"Strategically, these properties integrate extremely well with our current portfolio, expand our holdings in the Southeastern US and enable us to gain additional efficiencies by better leveraging our operating personnel," says Lawrence Miller, CEO of StoneMor GP LLC, in a statement. StoneMor GP the general partner of StoneMor Partners. Miller also said the ability to use limited partner units as acquisition currency facilitated this transaction, "and we believe our units will provide for an attractive option in future cemetery acquisitions."

StoneMor--formerly Cornerstone Family Services Inc.-- trades as STON on the NASDAQ, and is the only publicly traded death care company to focus almost exclusively on cemeteries. Its products and services include burial lots, lawn and mausoleum crypts, burial vaults, caskets, memorials and the services associated with their utilization. It sells services, merchandise and burial lots on both a pre-death and at-death basis. A call to StoneMor was not returned by deadline.