Dignity, an historic end-of-life service provider, has agreed a £12.9 million share deal to acquire ‘death specialist’ Farewill.
London-based Farewill is a leader in digital end-of-life services. Founded in 2015 by CEO Dan Garrett and Tom Rogers, offers a range of later-life products, including wills, probate, at-need funerals, and pre-paid funeral plans. It has helped raise £1.1 billion in pledges to charitable organisations.
Dignity, founded in 1812 and which has 800 branches across the country, 500 trading names and 46 crematoria, said the deal reinforces its position as the UK’s largest and most comprehensive end-of-life service provider – broadening its audience, expanding its product offering and modernising its technology infrastructure.
Farewill also brings an established will and probate bank and a well-established brand, enabling Dignity to engage with potential customers earlier in their later-life planning journey.
London-listed Castelnau Group completed the acquisition of Dignity in May 2023 through a joint venture with SPWOne, the family office of Sir Peter Wood, named Valderrama. This deal saw Dignity de-list from the London Stock Exchange.
The Farewill acquisition will be financed through a share-for-share exchange, with the majority of Farewill shareholders becoming shareholders in Castelnau. In exchange, Castelnau will increase its holding in Valderrama.
To fund its share of the acquisition, Castelnau expects to issue approximately 9.6m shares based on an issue price of 99p per share.
Subject to the successful completion of the transaction – which is subject to FCA approval – Castelnau will own 66% of Valderrama’s issued share capital.
Richard Brown, CEO of Castelnau, commented: “The addition of Farewill to Dignity’s offering embodies Castelnau’s strategic ambitions for Dignity, helping Dignity to drive its digital transformation and serve its customers even better.
“Adding Farewill’s will and probate services to Dignity’s current offerings will expand Dignity’s touchpoints with customers throughout their entire `end-of-life’ journey. We are pleased the structuring of the transaction has also allowed us to increase our ownership in Dignity, a business where we continue to see a significant value-creation opportunity.”
Garrett added: “At Farewill, our mission has always been to make the end-of-life experience as straightforward and stress-free as possible. Joining forces with Dignity allows us to stay true to that mission while benefiting from the experience and resources of a company that has been a trusted name for generations.
“Farewill will continue to operate independently, with our own brand and focus, serving a growing audience that values the convenience and transparency of our services – alongside contributing to the group as we explore ways of improving every customers’ experience.”