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"If you aren’t a global player today I think that it could be really hard for you to service your client in the future" |
It’s difficult to get a grip on the fact that Deutsche Bank only broke into the commercial real estate business 10 years ago, considering the position and influence it has in the market today. But when Jon Vaccaro joined from Citi in 1997 to become Deutsche’s global head of commercial real estate, his mission was very much to build a business, not to lead an established one. Even though at the time real estate capital markets were coming into their own and the securitized side of that market was still seen as tentative, Deutsche was already lagging behind the market leaders. Today Deutsche Bank is at the top of the heap when it comes to real estate-related investment banking, debt financing and commercial mortgage-backed securities transactions. This success has not come overnight but it has put the firm in pole position for the deals that everyone in the market is talking about.