Bonadio grows Syracuse–based internal-audit business with acquisition

SYRACUSE — The Bonadio Group’s acquisition of a Vermont accounting firm specializing in internal audits for banks will boost growth at Bonadio’s Syracuse–based internal audit team.

Rochester–based Bonadio Group, which has Central New York offices in Syracuse, Geneva, and Utica, announced April 30 it would acquire Rutland, Vt.–based Independent Audit Associates (IAA) in a deal closing the next day. Financial terms were not disclosed.

IAA, founded in 1992, has worked with banks and bank-holding companies with total assets between $150 million and $1 billion. It brings Bonadio 14 new banking clients.

The Bonadio Group will keep IAA’s Rutland office, which employs six people. They will report to Thomas Giglio, principal and head of Bonadio’s internal audit team in Syracuse, which employs four full-time staff members. Six other Bonadio employees from its external audit team also work for the internal audit unit on an as-needed basis, according to Giglio.

“[Internal audit is] an area that we have always felt there’s a growth opportunity,” Giglio says in an interview. “We’ve known some of the people at IAA. We’ve run into them at networking events We know their expertise, and with their client base it was a good fit. As a combined group we feel we can really grow going forward.”

As a result of the acquisition, Bonadio Group expects its internal audit team will generate annual billings of more than $1.2 million. Before the deal, the audit teams of IAA and Bonadio each produced about $600,000 in annual billings, according to Giglio.

He says that Bonadio Group expects to add employees in Syracuse as the combined internal-audit team grows. “Maybe one person a year in Syracuse; that would be the plan.” Giglio says.

The Bonadio Group’s internal audit unit has worked with banks and credit unions ranging from $50 million in assets up to about $6 billion in assets. The Bonadio team works with financial institutions who have either fully or partially outsourced their internal-audit function. The work includes looking at the bank or credit union’s internal-control policies, procedures, monitoring processes, and compliance with regulatory requirements, according to Giglio.

“[The acquisition] brings us into markets we’re not currently in. [IAA] is doing the same types of work that we’re doing but they’re in markets where we either have no presence or a small presence,” Giglio says. IAA has clients in Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and New York, he adds.

Stepping outside New York

This is the first acquisition outside New York for Bonadio Group, which has used acquisitions to grow to become upstate New York’s largest independent accounting firm.

“As our client base continues to expand beyond the borders of New York State, we were actively pursuing opportunities that would allow us to physically meet our clients’ demands, and have done so with our first office location in New England,” Thomas Bonadio, CEO and managing partner of Bonadio Group, said in a news release.

The Vermont acquisition is the second for Bonadio Group in six months. The firm acquired Richard Zweifel’s CPA team last fall, opening its first office in Utica.

The Bonadio Group says it currently has more than 380 employees statewide and annual revenue exceeding $55 million. The 35-year-old firm also has offices in Albany, Buffalo, Perry, and New York City.

The Syracuse office, located at 115 Solar St., employs 44 people total, according to Giglio.

The Bonadio Group first entered the Syracuse market in 2007 with the acquisition of Loguidice & Kamide, CPAs PLLC. Bonadio acquired the Syracuse operations of Philadelphia–based ParenteBeard in 2011, which added 21 employees and four new partners.

The Bonadio Group offers accounting, business advisory, payroll, and personal financial services, and was ranked number 54 in the Accounting Today 2013 list of the top 100 CPA firms.

Contact Rombel at arombel@cnybj.com