Real estate bigs to team up in new commercial workouts venture

Lewis Ranieri, the financier often credited with creating the mortgage-bond market, has tapped Jon Vaccaro, ex-head of Deutsche Bank AG’s commercial real estate unit, to spearhead a new commercial debt workouts initiative. The venture is looking to offer restructuring advice to lenders and commercial property owners and to join the likes of Starwood Capital Group, Apollo Management, and many other fund managers of late in setting up a private equity fund for distressed commercial properties. [WSJ]