(Bloomberg) -- Wall Street billionaire Howard Lutnick plans to step down from his three businesses and divest interests in his two public companies if he’s confirmed as commerce secretary in President-elect Donald Trump’s administration.
The chief executive officer of Cantor Fitzgerald LP will divest his interests in brokerage BGC Group Inc. and property firm Newmark Group Inc., but doesn’t plan to sell shares on the open market, he said in separate statements issued by those firms.
Lutnick’s firm Cantor, which includes an investment bank, fixed income and equities business, is private. A spokeswoman had no immediate comment on his plans for the leadership of that firm, which has several key deputies.
Lutnick, 63, also said he would step down from his positions at Cantor, BGC, and Newmark. He plans to recommend that John Abularrage, Jean-Pierre Aubin, and Sean Windeatt be named Co-CEOs of BGC once he’s confirmed, he said.
Shares in BGC fell 3.64% in late New York trading while Newmark declined 2.81%.
Lutnick, the co-chair of Trump’s transition team, raised millions of dollars for Trump’s presidential campaign, spoke at rallies and vowed his loyalty to the next president’s agenda. He had been in the running to be treasury secretary, but the commerce job gives Lutnick broad authority over the White House’s trade and aggressive tariff agenda, a central plank of the president-elect’s economic plan.
(Updates with background, shares from fifth paragraph.)
©2024 Bloomberg L.P.