Kansas City, Mo. (March 11, 2003) -- Mayer Hoffman McCann has bolstered its position as a national attest services firm by adding two accounting firms in Kansas to its fold -- the BCC Group, a 10-shareholder firm in Topeka and Leavenworth, and the six-partner practice of Poore Dameron Associates in Wichita.
The move into Kansas expands the company to a total of 127 shareholders or partners at operations in 13 markets. This is the second such set of mergers since last summer when Kansas City, Mo.-based MHM embarked on becoming a national attest company by acquiring and consolidating the attest practices of firms in the following cities: St. Louis, Philadelphia; Atlanta, Phoenix, Salt lake City, New Castle, Del., and: Los Angeles, Oxnard, Bakersfield, San Jose and San Ramon, all in California.
"The idea of providing a new alternative to the Big Four national accounting firms is really taking hold," said MHM national practice director Bill Hancock, He said negotiations are underway in "additional cities across the country" that could increase his company to 138 shareholders by the end of first quarter.
As in its previous deals, the firms acquired are placing their attest practices in MHM and placing their non-attest practices into national business services company , CBIZ . The original Mayer Hoffman McCann became an attest-only company when its sold its non-attest practices to Cleveland-based CBiz in 1998.
When it launched as a national attest practice, MHM said it was primarily targeting middle market, privately-held companies with annual revenues ranging from $5 million to about $250 million, and that publicly -owned companies were not a key target. Its attest services at that time included financial audits, reviews, compilations, projections, forecasts and litigation support.
-- John M. Covaleski
