Lewis Ranieri, one of the pioneers of the mortgage securitization market, has sold his real estate financing firm for $3.4bn (€2.34bn) because its access to debt financing has been stung by the sub-prime fallout.

Ranieri's American Financial Realty Trust was sold Monday to Gramercy Capital for $3.4bn, $2.3bn of which will be assumed debt and the rest in cash and stock. American Financial buys commercial properties, but has found a challenging environment lately that caused it to seek a buyout or joint venture partner, Ranieri said on a conference call with analysts. Today Ranieri said that the debt financing market for real estate has closed up.