Accordion, a private equity-focused financial consulting and technology firm, has acquired Mackinac Partners, a leading financial advisory, restructuring, and operational turnaround firm. Accordion has experienced tremendous organic growth, underscored by private equity’s focus on the role of value creation in a successful investment strategy, and accelerated by the firm’s 2018 investment from FFL Partners. As part of its ambitions to further scale and expand its scope of offerings, the Mackinac acquisition will enable Accordion to more meaningfully provide current and potential clients the kind of value stabilization and turnaround services that are critical to navigating economic uncertainty and industry disruption. It also expands Accordion’s reach beyond its current portfolio of over 200 fund sponsors and their portfolio companies, into the broader private capital marketplace.
“We believe the need for experienced turnaround, restructuring, and interim management expertise is no longer as cyclical as it’s been in the past,” said Nick Leopard, Founder and CEO of Accordion. “Value creation and value stabilization now go hand-in-hand during economic curves of every size and shape, and companies need to be well-positioned to respond to industry disruption and transformation. Our acquisition of Mackinac not only fortifies our business through volatile economic cycles, but it’s also inherently customer-centric at its core. The ability to provide unparalleled turnaround and restructuring services will mean support for clients through all phases – the highs and the lows – of their commercial lifecycle.”
Continued Leopard: “Equally important to what we provide, is how we provide it. More than a merger of complementary services, this acquisition represents the marriage of shared perspective. This deal combines two ‘non-consulting’ firms – organizations who put as much emphasis on hands-on, results-oriented execution, as we do unrivaled expertise. The acquisition of Mackinac not only makes Accordion bigger, but better – the better go-to-partner for the private capital community.”
Mackinac’s expertise in managing complex financial restructurings, business turnarounds, and providing interim management services will enhance Accordion’s existing Performance Improvement practice and its additional service areas: operational and technical accounting, strategic financial planning and analysis, transaction execution, and public company readiness, all of which are rooted in Accordion’s legacy expertise within the office of the CFO, and supported by a team of practitioners well-versed in CFO-specific technology and finance transformation.
Jim Weissenborn, Mackinac’s Founder, will remain its Managing Partner and serve as President of Accordion’s Turnaround and Restructuring practice. He said of the acquisition: “They say deals where everyone wins are a rare breed – this one seems the rarest. It’s a win for our clients and their management teams who now have expertise at their disposal beyond the red turnaround phase into the yellow and green of value creation and growth acceleration. It’s a win for Accordion’s clients who are experiencing a period of disruption in their growth trajectory. It’s a win for our team who is joining a company with a unique culture, focused on a better way to work in finance. And, it’s a win for me personally, to work alongside a team that shares a passion for driving lasting change across the private capital industry.”
The acquisition will add 40 professionals to Accordion’s growing team of experts in finance, operations, and technology. Headquartered in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, Mackinac brings Accordion’s total number of offices to nine, including: Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, and South Florida.