Ascend invests in Goering & Granatino

Ascend, backed by private equity firm Alpine Investors, has made its latest investment in the accounting space, buying the non-attest side of Goering & Granatino PA, a firm based in Overland Park, Kansas.

The group has made a series of investments this past year, including Opsahl Dawson in Vancouver, Washington, in January; ATKG in San Antonio, Texas, in May; LMC in New York City in June; and Sentient Solutions for Accounting, an offshore services provider in India and Mexico, in July. Opsahl Dawson acquired two firms in Washington State — StraderHallett and Futcher Group — in September. The investment in Goering & Granatino is Ascend's first deal in the Midwest.

As is typically the case in private equity deals with accounting firms, Goering & Granatino will adopt an alternative practice structure: As an independently owned and licensed CPA firm, Goering & Granatino PA will provide attest services, while GG Advisors LLC will provide tax, business advisory and other non-attest services. Post-transaction, Ascend will own the non-attest business.

Goering & Granatino was founded in 2014 and the deal will add 40 professionals to Ascend's team, including partners Amber Goering and Frank Granatino. The transaction took effect Sunday, Oct. 1.

"Amber Goering and Frank Granatino are as genuine and passionate as you will find in this industry," said Ascend CEO David Wurtzbacher in a statement Tuesday. "They care about their people and the profession at large and have pursued growth to make their mark. I am also thrilled to welcome a female CEO into our group, as we are committed to creating a premier destination for women in this industry." 

Goering will become CEO of G&G Advisors. She met Wurtzbacher at the American Institute of CPAs' Engage conference in June during a panel discussion.

"We built our firm from scratch and scaled up as much as we could on our own," she said in a statement. "We honestly never would have considered merging into a larger firm because we are fiercely independent and don't want to lose our very special culture. When David and I met at a speaking engagement at AICPA's Engage conference this year I recognized immediately that Ascend was the perfect partner for us. We not only will maintain our independence, we will be able to fast-track our rising stars and empower our young professionals to take on reviewer and advisory roles more quickly, which will strengthen our culture and client service even more."