Investment banker Hunt Greene retiring after 42 years

Hunt Greene is doing his last deal this fall.

Greene, 66, a Twin Cities-based investment banker for four decades, plans to retire this month.

Last year, Greene and eight partners sold their 28-employee mergers-and-acquisitions boutique, Greene Holcomb Fisher, to expanding BMO Capital Markets.

"I've been at this for 42 years and I committed to BMO to help them with their transition to make the deal successful and they've pretty much done that," Greene said. "And it's hard to buy a group of professionals and integrate them. Then I had to decide to whether keep working. And I decided I've been doing this long enough."

Greene said he will focus on business interests and philanthropy. Greene and a son, Brennan, a brewmaster, own Birch's on Long Lake, a restaurant and brewpub. They are expanding to a downtown St. Paul location next spring.

Greene leaves at the top of the market, in terms of record high transaction and volume numbers in the business of buying and selling companies.

"I think there's a real danger in terms of what happens next in the M&A market and the stock market," Greene said. "It's an unprecedented sellers' market. People are paying very strong prices for businesses. And there's still a lot of cash that wants to go to work.

Greene's last deal also was announced this week.

The Minneapolis-based team at BMO Capital Markets, of which Greene is a managing director, is representing Ecolab in its sale of its $180 million-revenue equipment care business to Audax Private Equity of Boston.

Prior to forming his own firm 22 years ago, Greene worked in corporate finance for Piper Jaffray.

A native of Texas, he moved to Piper after earning an MBA from Harvard Business School.