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Private credit lenders back Baker Tilly’s Moss Adams merger with $1.5bn financing (9fin)

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News and Analysis

Private credit lenders back Baker Tilly’s Moss Adams merger with $1.5bn financing (9fin)

Shubham Saharan's avatar
David Brooke's avatar
  1. Shubham Saharan
  2. +David Brooke

Advisory and accounting services provider Baker Tilly has lined up more than $1.5bn of incremental financing from private credit lenders led by Blackstone to support its merger with Moss Adams, according to 9fin sources.

The incremental facility comprises of a $925m term loan, $400m DDTL and $130m RCF, sources said. Pricing on the incremental facility is slated at SOFR+450bps if the company’s leverage is in excess of 3.25x and SOFR+425bps if it is under 3.25x, they added.

Baker Tilly has an existing about $1bn privately placed debt facility, sources noted. That facility is priced at SOFR+500bps if the company has over 3.75x leverage and SOFR+475bps if the company’s leverage is under 3.75x. The existing facility, combined with the aforementioned incremental financing brings the company’s total debt to roughly $2.5bn.

Blackstone led both the incremental and the full package, the sources noted. Other private credit firms supporting the financing include Blue Owl and New Mountain Capital, they added, noting that other direct lenders also participated.

In April, Baker Tilly and Moss Adams announced that the companies would merge under the former’s name in a transaction that would value the entity at about $7bn. The deal would create the sixth largest advisory CPA firm in the US, per the company announcement. News of the merger comes just a year after Baker Tilly announced that the company had sold a stake to private equity firms Hellman & Friedman and Valeas Capital Partners.

Accounting and advisory firms are among the more popular assets on the market today. Earlier this month, we reported that accountancy and consulting company Elliott Davis was seeking a new owner, advised by Guggenheim; elsewhere, CVC-backed restructuring advisor AlixPartners is sounding out potential investors for a minority equity investment.

This transaction also represents one of the few large scale LBOs financed by private credit firms during a tepid M&A environment. Other examples include the $5bn plus loan arranged for Clearlake’s buyout for Dun & Bradstreet and the $975m financing secured for the buyout of PowerGrid.

Blackstone, Valeas and Blue Owl declined to comment. New Mountain, Baker Tilly, Moss Adams, and H&F did not respond to requests for comment.

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