Ira Rennert - Early Career

Early Career

Rennert started his career as a credit analyst on Wall Street in 1956. He also served briefly as a salesman for a typewriting company and a stock brokerage, before launching his own business, I.L.Rennert & Co. in 1962 based at a Beaver Street office in Lower Manhattan. At this time he was censured by the NASD for operating with insufficient capital. This occurred again in 1963 and as a result, his license was revoked on November 29, 1964, effectively banning him from the securities industry. According to a company spokesman, Jon Goldberg:

"Due to market conditions, the firm found itself in violation of the net capital rule and Rennert raised capital and put it into the firm to bring it into compliance. However, the firm once more fell beneath the net-capital requirements and he shut the company down."

Rennert was a consultant for the next eleven years (Who’s Who entry) and entered the private equity market. His role was to put together small leveraged buyouts of unwanted companies. In 1975 he bought a sewing machine maker, and a few years later purchased Covert Marine Inc. of Kansas City (forced into bankruptcy in 1992), followed later by a group of hardware stores and lumber companies. In the early 1980s he joined the board of Integrated Resources Inc, a company financed by Michael Milken where he learned the art of raising junk bonds to finance additional acquisitions.