Irvine-based Bolar Hirsch & Jennings LLP, Orange County’s 14th-largest accounting firm by local employee count, is being acquired by a San Ramon-based competitor that’s been on a growth push in Southern California of late.
Armanino LLP, which has been billed in recent years as the largest independent accounting and business consulting firm based in California, said it will buy Bolar Hirsch, which specializes in work for high-net-worth individuals, real estate services and corporate tax services.
The deal is set to be completed at the end of the month. Terms of the transaction were undisclosed.
Bolar Hirch has about $20 million in annual revenue. It has seven partners and more than 90 staff members, according to a recent report in trade publication Accounting Today.
Partner Daniel Bolar’s biography says he represents “some of the most influential individuals and families in Orange County,” while fellow name partners David Hirsch and Michael Jennings represent some of the area’s top real estate owners, developers, homebuilders and operators, according to the firm’s website.
The former Bolar Hirsch & Jennings team will continue to operate from its office at the Lakeshore Towers complex, a few blocks from John Wayne Airport.
It will be Armanino’s first location in Orange County. Its closest offices are in El Segundo and downtown Los Angeles.
Bolar Hirsch “is a highly specialized tax firm with an amazing group of people and will put us in the hub of Orange County, where they have created a successful and trusted brand for nearly 30 years,” Armanino Chief Executive Matt Armanino said in a statement.
He said his firm “has been strategically investing in the Southern California market,” including a deal in 2015 to merge with L.A.’s RBZ LLP, a $40 million firm.
Armanino now has five offices in Southern California with the latest transaction.
The deal with Bolar Hirsh should push Armanino’s revenue close to $290 million. It ranked No. 23 in Accounting Today’s latest list of the country’s largest firms, with a reported $268 million in revenue last year. It has nearly 1,200 employees companywide.
It serves individuals with a full family-office offering, and businesses with tax expertise and audit, consulting and technology services.
The transaction “brings value to individual tax clients looking for greater depth of expertise and a full suite of household finance solutions, and to Orange County-based companies that can take advantage of a wider set of available solutions to assist businesses at any stage of their lifecycle, from startup to wind-down,” the firm said in a statement.
The deal “not only expands our capabilities, but gives clients access to a large network of experts, including a real estate team well versed in real estate investment trusts, private equity funds and audit capabilities for all real estate businesses,” said Hirsch.
Allan Koltin, chief executive of Koltin Consulting Group, advised both firms in the transaction.
