By JASON BOOTH
Staff Reporter
Looking to invest in a business that will never go out of fashion? Why not consider the death-care industry?
The Neptune Society, which specializes in low-price cremations, has gone public, giving investors their latest opportunity to cash in on the aging Baby Boom generation.
Stock in the Burbank-based firm began trading May 4 on the OTC Bulletin Board and since then has held steady at the $6.50 level.
Analysts agree that Neptune Society is tapping into a steady market with long-term potential.
“The good thing about working in the death-care industry is that you will always have a customer,” said Jordan Horoschack, an analyst at S & P; Equity Group in New York. “People will always die.”
The Neptune Society was founded 26 years ago by Manny Weintraub, now 72 years old. In April, Weintraub sold the company for $27 million to Boca Raton, Fla.-based investment bank BG Capital Group, which promptly took the firm public.
“For a number of years I have been concerned about my succession,” said Weintraub. “It is time for me to take a step back and not get so involved in day-to-day operations.”
Weintraub will remain with the company as an advisor. Meantime, BG Capital will be looking for an experienced management team to lead the firm at its Burbank headquarters.
“With the stronger backing it will enable us to create the first death-care company that is recognizable nationwide,” Weintraub said. “Our future is in growth through acquisition.”
The number of cremations performed in the United States has increased an average of 4 percent a year in the 1990s, while the overall death rate has remained steady, according to the Cremation Society of America. If the trend continues, the share of U.S. deaths handled by cremation will top 40 percent by 2010, up from 17 percent in 1990.
The Neptune Society claims to be the nation’s largest provider of cremation services. Last year, it conducted 4,900 such procedures.
According to Financial Strategies and Investing Inc., a Massachusetts-based research firm that valued the Neptune Society before the purchase, the firm is expected to generate revenues of $11.5 million in 1999, with operating cash flow close to $4.9 million. By 2001, revenue is projected to hit $13.6 million, with operating cash flow of $6.2 million.
But judging by the performance of other death-care stocks, the Neptune Society could be a hard sell.
Service Corp. International, the largest funeral home and cemetery organization in the world, has seen its share price fall by more than 50 percent over the past year. And the stock of Loewen Group Inc., the nation’s second largest death-care firm, has plunged by more than 90 percent in the past 12 months.
Analysts said the weakness was prompted by over-expansion and investors overestimating the growth potential of the funeral business.
“The investor appetite is clearly not what it was a couple of years ago,” said Lee D. Wilder of J.C. Bradford in Atlanta. “The industry went through a period of rapid growth through acquisition, but is now suffering a major case of indigestion.”
