Howard Lutnick Comments: Cantor Fitzgerald Open To Going Public - Reuters.com
Reuters.com, November 16, 2009
Specifically, he said he wanted to bulk up in investment banking and have 40 to 50 people in real estate loan workouts, up from 16 or 17 now. The firm is also building up prime brokerage services for mid-sized hedge funds, fulfilling a long-time objective.
Cantor also is growing "across the board" in fixed income and in equities trading and sales. Lutnick also envisions pooling client money and then serving as an agent to make commercial real estate loans.
For years, Cantor was way down the list of Wall Street firms, far behind industry giants like Goldman Sachs (GS.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Morgan Stanley (MS.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz).
Since the turmoil of 2008, the field is less crowded and balance sheets are no longer deployed so willingly by banks eager to win business. This benefits a smaller firm like Cantor.
"These opportunities are available to us because the concept of competing for credit is over," he said. "We are the most successful investment bank in America now. It's a different world now."
On the other end of the spectrum, Lutnick predicted a wave of small and start-up trading firms born from the wreckage of last year's financial crisis would disappear just as quickly.
He said the number of resumes coming into Cantor has tripled in the past six weeks compared with earlier this year, with many job-seekers eager to leave smaller firms that do not have the same cache as a big bank.
"I think you're going to see hundreds of these new broker-dealers die. The people who are really good are going to leave the places that do not have scale, that do not have capital and that do not have the capacity to commit," he said.
