CONSOLIDATION: THE NEWEST PLAYER.

• Position: Brief Article

Robert C. Basten, former CEO of American Express Tax & Business Services, has rolled up eight CPA firms and three insurance and financial services companies for an initial public offering (IPO). The newly formed company, CenterPoint Advisors, Inc., is based in Chicago.

The "poof" IPO--so called because the 11 acquisitions were made at the same time as, and as a condition of, the closing of the IPO--will be launched late July and is expected to bring $150 to $200 million. According to the registration statement filed with the SEC in April, the CPA firms and insurance and financial services companies are considered CenterPoint's founding companies and were chosen because they had established strong "trusted adviser" relationships with their clients.

A powerful team

The CPA firms that have joined CenterPoint are generally larger than the firms that have been acquired by American Express and Century Business. They include

* Berry, Dunn, McNeil & Parker, Portland, Maine.

* Follmer, Rudzewicz, Detroit, Michigan.

* Grace & Company, St. Louis, Missouri.

* Holthouse Carlin & Van Trigt, Los Angeles, California.

* Mann Frankfort Stein & Lipp, Houston, Texas.

* Reznick Fedder & Silverman, Bethesda, Maryland.

* Simione, Scillia, Larrow & Dowling, New Haven, Connecticut.

* Urbach Kahn & Werlin, Albany, New York.

The other companies are Robert F. Driver of San Diego, Insurance Design Administrators of Oakland, N.J., and Reppond of Bellevue, Washington. The roll-ups have combined 1998 revenues of $201 million, including $149.3 million from the firms and $51.7 million from the other companies.

CenterPoint plans to market business and financial services and products to middle-market clients, including privately held companies, government and not-for-profit entities and affluent individuals and families. "This is an exciting new operating structure within the profession and I think the public will respond favorably to it," says Jay Nisberg, a consultant to the accounting profession based in Bridgewater, Connecticut. "They have been able to attract high-quality firms, and I believe they plan to attract even more."

Talent at the top

Basten, CenterPoint's president and CEO, has a reputation for building financial services organizations. He is the roll-up expert who built American Express TBS into a $150...