The accounting firm roll-ups borrow from private lenders through their advisory companies
Private equity's purchases of accounting firms are financed with private credit, and the June 30, 2026 loan schedules that business development companies report to the SEC show the lenders behind them. Baker Tilly Advisory Group's loans sit in 17 funds run by 7 lenders, with $1,469 million of principal outstanding between them. The other large firms show the same pattern: at least 8 lenders for Aprio Advisory Group, 7 for Carr, Riggs & Ingram, 6 each for Grant Thornton Advisors and Eisner Advisory Group, and 5 each for Citrin Cooperman Advisors and Wipfli Advisory. Blackstone Private Credit Fund alone holds $573.4 million of Baker Tilly's first-lien term loans at SOFR plus 4.25% to 4.75%, due in June 2031, plus a $74.1 million revolving line that was undrawn on June 30 sec.gov.
The borrower in nearly every one of these loans is the advisory company, and that follows from how the deals are built. Under the structure most of them use, the audit practice stays in a CPA firm that licensed accountants must own at least a majority of, while the staff and the tax and advisory work move into a legally separate company that outside investors can own icpas.org. The loans attach to that advisory company, which is where the people who do the work are employed.
The terms look like the loans behind other services roll-ups. Stone Point Credit Corp holds $45.1 million of Aprio's first-lien loans at SOFR plus 4.75%, due in August 2031, and $22.4 million of that is delayed-draw term loans that Aprio has already drawn sec.gov. Delayed-draw loans are committed in advance and usually drawn as acquisitions close, so a drawn line is a record of deals done and an undrawn line is capacity for the next ones. Blue Owl Credit Income Corp. holds $337.1 million of Baker Tilly's first-lien loans and an undrawn $43.1 million revolving line sec.gov.
For the owner of an accounting firm, the lender list shows whose money is behind a bid. A firm that bids for another is spending money its lenders have already committed, on terms those lenders set, and the size of its undrawn lines shows how much more it can buy before it has to go back to them. An owner weighing offers can ask each bidder who its lenders are and how much acquisition capacity remains, and compare the answers with the next quarter's schedules.
Accounting is one of the services businesses where people still do most of the work clients pay for, and where software is taking on more of it, from preparing returns to closing the books. That makes the cost of money for the firms doing the buying worth knowing: SOFR plus 4.25% to 4.75% for Baker Tilly and SOFR plus 4.75% for Aprio, secured on the advisory business. An owner who knows those terms knows what the debt behind a buyer's next acquisition costs it.
The September 30 schedules arrive in November. Two things are worth watching: whether more of these firms draw their delayed-draw lines, which would mark acquisitions closing, and whether lenders that have stayed out of accounting so far join these groups.