Howard Lutnick returns to SPACs, despite past troubles

• This comes just months after Cantor Fitzgerald raised $100 million for its ninth SPAC, which was its first such offering in years.

The big picture: SPACs have become synonymous with sinkholes for many investors, even if not for many sponsors, which is why they've fallen out of favor since the 2020-2022 boom.

Zoom in: Cantor Fitzgerald, which underwrote dozens of SPACs during that period, saw similar struggles.

• It raised over $2.2 billion for seven sponsored SPACs in 2020 and 2021, and completed mergers for five of them (one liquidated and another has until next March to find a target).
• Of those five, one went bankrupt and the other four are trading well below the SPAC measuring stick price of $10 per share.

• Cantor Fitzgerald also raised an initial SPAC before the boom that merged with alt asset manager GCM Grosvenor ($11.50 per share on Friday).

Cantor Fitzgerald declined comment.

The bottom line: Lutnick may see some sort of blank-check company thaw on the horizon, perhaps by digging through the glut of stranded unicorns.

• But given the track records — of both the overall market and his own sponsored SPACs — he's got better odds of helping to staff Trump's administration. And that's just 50-50 at this point.