For the second time this year, UHY has expanded in the St. Louis area through an acquisition.
The accounting and professional services company with a big regional presence has bought Sabino & Co. LLC. Terms of the deal, which closed June 1, were not disclosed.
“At the end of the day, we felt like they were a really good cultural fit,” said Jerry Townsend, UHY Midwest Region managing director, based in Maplewood. “We started to dig in some more and we saw some synergies with real estate and some of their other practice areas.”
UHY also knew Sabino & Co had a high-quality tax group and combining it with UHY’s would benefit clients, Townsend added.
Dave Sabino, who founded the firm in 1998, confirmed that the deal involved two transactions, as CPA Practice Advisor reported. UHY Advisors acquired Sabino & Co.’s non-attest assets and UHY LLP acquired Sabino’s attest assets. Non-attest assets do not involve providing assurance or verification of financial statements such as tax preparation, bookkeeping or consulting services.
“With CPA firms, that happens many times. They separate consulting and tax from the attest,” Sabino said.
Townsend said all of the employees of the former Sabino & Co. would move to UHY’s office in Maplewood in about two weeks. Sabino said that involves six employees. Sabino & Co.’s website lists seven, but CPA Patricia McDougell is retiring, Sabino said. Sabino & Co.'s current office is at 390 S. Woods Mill Road in Chesterfield, owned by an entity tied to Gershman Commercial Real Estate. UHY's Maplewood office is at 15 Sunnen Drive, owned by an entity affiliated with Sunnen Products.
“Our firm and clients are excited,” Sabino said Friday about the sale to UHY. “It’s going to allow us to provide a vast array of services that as a small firm we can’t provide."
On Jan. 1, UHY closed on the acquisition of St. Charles County-based accounting firm Botz, Deal & Co. PC. The addition of Botz Deal brought UHY over 30 employees and three St. Louis-area office locations in St. Charles, St. Peters and Wentzville.
Based in Farmington Hills, Michigan, UHY LLP offers audit and other attest services, and UHY Advisors provides tax and consulting services, and they operate separately under a so-called alternative practice structure to comply with securities laws. Both are U.S. members of United Kingdom-based Urbach Hacker Young International Ltd., or UHY International.
The firm ranked as the St. Louis region's sixth-largest accounting firm, based on 202 professionals as of Jan. 1. It also was sixth based on the number of local CPAs, with 89. The firm has 214 total local employees, 1,875 employees nationwide and 42 offices, according to Business Journal research published in March.
Trade journal Accounting Today’s Top 100 accounting firms list ranked UHY as the 26th largest, with $384.7 million in total revenue in 2024 – a 13% increase over 2023.
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