What Grant Thornton Must Believe: An LBO of the $5 Billion CBIZ Take-Private
A six-tab LBO model of the announced Grant Thornton / New Mountain take-private of CBIZ (NYSE: CBZ) at $55.00/share. Because the acquirer is a private, PE-backed partnership, there’s no merger model to build — only a sponsor return to test. The base case: 2.12x MOIC, 16.2% IRR, below the ~20% hurdle most buyout shops underwrite to. The reverse-engineered payoff — what exit multiple New Mountain actually needs — is the real output.