Pritzkers to Buy Stake in S.F. Brokerage

Montgomery Securities, a San Francisco-based investment firm, announced Wednesday that it will sell a 12.5% interest in itself for $10 million to a new investment partnership primarily owned by the Pritzker family of Chicago.

Thom Weisel, a senior executive at Montgomery, said the new partnership will be headed by Thomas Pritzker as chairman and Will Weinstein, currently Montgomery’s managing partner, as president.

The as yet unnamed partnership will act as adviser to the Pritzker family’s far-flung enterprises, which include Braniff airlines and Hyatt Hotels; as an investor for its own account; and as a provider of investment and merchant banking services.

The arrangement offers Montgomery “new capital for growth and aligns us with a partnership strategically involved in a lot of activities,” Weisel said.

He added that Montgomery, one of the largest investment firms outside of New York, will continue to operate independently as an institutional equity brokerage, investment banker and venture capitalist.

Weisel dismissed any suggestion that the new partnership’s stake in Montgomery would result in any conflict of interest for the brokerage’s analysts, who follow such industries as airlines and hotels. “We’re going to continue to call things like we see them,” he said.