Content area
Full Text
Anthony "Tony" Pritzker-part of Chicago's ultrarich Pritzker familysays he loves finding troubled companies and turning them around. Now he has $300 million to spend on his passion.
In February, Pritzker and younger brother J.B. Pritzker started Pritzker Group LLC, a private-equity firm in Seal Beach with funding. from their family's fortune.
The brothers say they plan to buy manufacturing, aerospace and technology companies here and across the country. Tony Pritzker works out of Seal Beach while his brother is in Chicago.
"I am an operations person, while my brother is a finance person," said Tony Pritzker, the Pritzker Group's chief executive. "I like to run companies. I like to turn around companies."
The Pritzker family is best known for its century-old empire that includes Hyatt Corp., manufacturing and service conglomerate The Marmon Group Inc., a quarter stake in Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd., as well as real estate and other holdings.
Robert Pritzker, head of Marmon Group, and Thomas Pritzker, who oversees Hyatt, ranked a combined No. 55 on the Forbes 2002 list of the world's 500 richest people.
Tony and J.B Pritzker are sons of Donald Pritzker, who took the company into the hotel business. Donald himself is the grandson of patriarch Nicholas Pritzker, who came to the U.S. from Russia in the late 1800s.
The, Pritzkers have other Orange County ties. They own Buena Park Mall, recently renamed Buena Park Downtown, through their Chicago-based Sunrise Buena Park LP.
And a blueprint for Pritzker Group's strategy can be found at Seal Beach-based Baker Tank Inc., a renter of truck and chemical tanks and other gear. In 1996, the family's H Group Holding Inc. bought Baker Tanks, where Tony Pritzker serves as chief executive.
Pritzker Group...