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Acquisition Of Tax & Accounting Firm Bolsters NDH’s Services and Establishes Presence in the Kansas City Region
DALLAS — November 21, 2023 — Unity Partners LP (“Unity Partners”), a principles-based private equity firm, and NDH Advisors LLC (“NDH”), a Chicago-headquartered accounting business, today announced that NDH has completed the acquisition of tax and accounting firm Stratus Group LLC (“Stratus” or “the Business”). Terms of the private transaction were not disclosed.
Established in 2002 and located in Leawood, Kansas, Stratus provides tax and outsourced accounting services to high net-worth individuals and small businesses. In addition to the firm’s tax focus, Stratus provides services such as estate planning, succession planning, cash flow reporting and bill pay, recordkeeping, and money manager selection and evaluation. The firm is led by founder Courtney Jones, who possesses extensive industry experience from a 22-year career at Deloitte, a big-four public accounting firm, and will continue to be actively involved in the business.
“Following our partnership with Unity in May of 2023, we’ve been evaluating strategic growth opportunities and are thrilled for the Stratus team to join us in providing premier tax, accounting and advisory services to clients,” said Jeremy Dubow, CEO and co-founder of NDH. “Courtney is a highly-energized and experienced leader who will help us grow our presence in Kansas City and collaborate with us on best practices to enhance our business and serve more clients across the country.”
As part of the acquisition, Stratus Group employees will become part of NDH’s Employee Purpose Plan, a broad-based employee ownership program that allows employees to benefit from the company’s success. Employee ownership is a high priority for Unity Partners, and it is built into each of Unity’s investments.
“NDH has displayed tremendous revenue growth relative to other firms in the industry and that growth speaks to NDH’s culture, technical expertise, and elite capabilities the firm delivers to its clients,” said Jones. “The entire Stratus team is excited for this opportunity, as I believe the combination of our two businesses will deliver top-tier service to current and future clients and a great experience to current and future employees.”
“Since our investment in NDH, we have prioritized implementing our ‘Partner & Propel’ strategy to find great firms that fit well with NDH and embrace our goal of building better together as we expand our footprint,” said Peter Cozzi, Team Lead at Unity Partners. “Stratus is a phenomenal business to partner with and we’re eager to continue to drive additional growth with NDH in this highly fragmented market.”
Crowe LLP served as an accounting advisor to NDH and Kirkland & Ellis served as a legal advisor to NDH. Livingstone served as the financial advisor to Stratus and Lathrop GPM served as the legal advisor to Stratus.
About Unity Partners
Unity Partners is a principles-based private equity firm that partners investors and operators to build better together, measured by the economic surplus we create and share with all stakeholders. Our principles provide a foundation to build great people-based services and technology organizations that impact thousands of lives. We deploy our Partner & Propel strategy to identify opportunities to Partner with ambitious leaders to accelerate growth, unlock the benefits of platform scale through mergers and acquisitions and Propel value acceleration through investments in people, processes, and operational levers. For more information, visit unitypartnerslp.com.
About NDH
NDH is a best-in-class, tax and accounting firm serving dynamic businesses, high net-worth individuals, and family offices throughout the United States. With offices in Chicago, Illinois and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and a growing team of talented professionals, NDH provides tax advisory, tax consulting, tax preparation, outsourced back-office accounting, fractional CFO and start-up business services. For more information, visit ndhcpa.com.
About Stratus
Stratus is a premier provider of tax, accounting, and advisory services for small businesses and high net-worth individuals. With a suite of tax planning, financial reporting and client accounting services, Stratus has served as a trusted advisor to clients in the Kansas City region for over 20 years. For more information, visit stratuscpa.com.
Media Contact
Trevor Blaisdell
646-502-3532
TBlaisdell@StantonPRM.com