Centerprise, which withdrew its planned initial public offering shortly after it received regulatory approval last November, has been reincarnated as a privately held entity in a deal valued at over $250 million led by Midwest-based investment banking firm Brown, Gibbons, Lang & Company.

The rollup outfit plans to tackle the middle market eyed by several large firms, including BDO Seidman, whose chief executive Denis Field earlier this year announced the firm’s plans to become an accounting firm consolidator, and RSM McGladrey, the rollup formed by H&R Block Inc.’s 1999 acquisition of McGladrey & Pullen’s non-attest assets.

"Middle market firms deserve the same depth and breadth of services that Fortune 500 companies get from the Big Five firms," said Centerprise Advisors chairman and chief executive Robert Basten. "There are very few professional services firms with the diversification of services, expert advisors and geographic reach to meet the growing demands of middle market clients. The Big Five can no longer afford to serve most of these firms, and have priced themselves out of the middle market. We formed Centerprise Advisors to fill this important gap."

The premise behind Centerprise and other consolidators is that combining the resources of several firms offers clients access to a greater range of expertise and services than any of the firms could offer individually. Accounting firms in particular, often touted as their clients' most trusted advisor, are thought to be able to leverage their existing client relationships to cross sell services and products.

Centerprise includes five accounting and professional services firms: Follmer, Rudzewicz & Co. of Southfield Mich.; Grace & Co. of St. Louis; Mann Frankfort Stein & Lipp of Houston; Simione Scillia Larrow & Dowling of New Haven, Conn.; and Urbach Kahn & Werlin of Albany, N.Y. The non-CPA firms are Brunswick Integrated Computer Solutions, renamed Centerprise Information Solutions, which provides information technology consulting, software-based solutions, training and support, and Insurance Design Administrators of Oakland, N.J., a provider of health care benefit design and administration services, Centerprise said. Two CPA firms that were involved in the original Centerprise plan, Berry, Dunn, McNeil & Parker of Portland, Me., and Reznick Fedder & Silverman of Bethesda, Md., dropped out of the deal.

The seven core members account for combined revenues of $141.5 million, ranking Centerprise as the 13th largest accounting firm in the nation, the firm said. The founding Centerprise companies boast pro forma combined revenues in excess of $140 million, operating income of more than $27 million in 2000, and a combined compound annual growth rate of 21.2 percent from 1996 to 1999, according to the company. The five professional services firms, all large regional players in their respective markets, will continue to operate under their existing names. The principals will own a 75 percent stake in the consolidated firm, Centerprise said.

As a group, the Centerprise firms offer expertise in accounting and consulting services, ISO 9000 consulting, mergers and acquisitions transaction services, strategic planning, litigation services, construction industry services, international consulting, government and educational strategies, and health care claims management, the firm said.

"Now we can draw upon a much broader and deeper pool of knowledge and experience to meet their increasingly complex business needs," said Richard H. Stein, of Mann Frankfort Stein & Lipp, who has been named vice chairman of Centerprise Advisors.