Midlands advisors clinch deal to sell mortuary cooling firm

Midlands-based Magma Corporate Finance has advised on the sale of Flexmort – the Birmingham firm which specialises in mortuary cooling solutions, which has been acquired by a group of investors led by Noar.

The business was founded in 2010 by entrepreneur Simon Rothwell who identified the need for mortuary solutions to be more flexible to cope with fluctuations in demand and to overcome both manual handling and specific cooling issues.

Flexmort’s products are now used worldwide across the healthcare, funeral services and emergency services sectors. During the Covid crisis, the company played a central role in equipping hospitals and assisting governments in contingency planning to manage and extend capacity.

Noar holds a diverse portfolio of UK investments, with investee companies operating in a variety of market sectors. Noar deploys patient capital and looks to holds investments over the long term.

Will Lodder, Shaf Bheda and Irfan Ashfak of Magma Corporate Finance acted as lead advisors, with Gary Davie of Legal Clarity providing legal advice to the vendor. Noar’s investment was supported by Chelverton Asset Management with legal advice provided by Andrew Stilton of Keystone Law.

Founder Simon Rothwell, who will play an ongoing consultancy role in the business, said:“We are extremely excited to be joining Noar. The move ensures the company is ideally placed to take advantage of the significant expansion opportunities ahead.”

He added: “As with many business owners, I had no prior experience of selling a business so the support I received from Magma and Legal Clarity throughout the process was invaluable. I would not have been able to do it without them and cannot recommend them highly enough.”

Shaf Bheda said: “Flexmort is fantastic business and I’m confident that under Noar’s ownership, the business will continue its rapid expansion. I thoroughly enjoyed supporting Simon on the transaction and am pleased that we achieved the right outcome for him personally and for the business.”

Gary Davie, partner at Legal Clarity, added: “We were delighted to support Simon and play our part in securing the deal for him and opening up new opportunities for the business going forward. The deal was not without its challenges, including a pre-sale cross border reorganisation, but a pragmatic and commercial approach adopted by all parties including by Andrew Stilton as the buyer’s lead lawyer helped enormously with a smooth deal process.”