Houston Firm Purchases Camarillo Cemetery

Carriage Services Inc. has agreed to purchase the Conejo Mountain Funeral Home and Memorial Park in Camarillo, the Houston-based company announced. The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2007. Details were not disclosed. Conejo Mountain performs approximately 275 funeral services and 390 cemetery internments annually. A new funeral home, sales and administrative facility is currently under construction and expected to be completed before the end of the year. Acquiring Conejo Mountain is consistent with the company’s growth strategy that focuses on premier businesses in selective geographic markets with positive long-term demographic trends, said Carriage Services Chairman and CEO Melvin Payne, in a statement. “The acquisition will be Carriage’s entr & #233;e into the Southern California market and will position us to develop similar opportunities in the greater Los Angeles market with the goal of building a concentrated group of quality operating assets similar to our portfolio in the San Francisco Bay area,” Payne said. Carriage Services is the fourth largest publicly traded death care company in the U.S and operates funeral homes and cemeteries in 38 states.