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Merkel reportedly seeks new IKB bailout as bank again delays H1 report UPDATE
November 29, 2007: 03:53 AM EST
(updates with background on bailout; adds IKB earnings story)
FRANKFURT, Nov. 29, 2007 (Thomson Financial delivered by Newstex) -- Chancellor Angela Merkel is pressuring Germany's major banks to provide fresh funding to IKB Deutsche Industriebank AG, to prevent the troubled lender from falling below its minimum equity ratio threshold, Handelsblatt reported.
Merkel plans to address the issue with, among others, Deutsche Bank (NYSE:DB) CEO Josef Ackermann and his counterpart at Commerzbank, Klaus-Peter Mueller, the newspaper said without naming sources.
IKB, which was in August granted a 3.5 bln eur credit line by its peers after a month earlier becoming the first German bank to be significantly impacted by the US subprime crisis, this morning for the second time postponed publication of its first-half results due to subprime-related issues.
Handelsblatt said a working party meeting of the pool of banks that provided the August bailout package had been scheduled for yesterday, but was postponed on the back of Merkel's initiative to take the issue to the top of the banks' management chain.
IKB this summer also received financial support from its 38 pct state-owned shareholder, development bank KfW Bankengruppe, which set aside 2.5 bln eur of provisions to cover the unit's subprime-related risks.
In this morning's statement IKB declined to specify when the results, covering the six months to September, will be published.
It said the delay was due to the first-time inclusion of Rhineland Funding, the off-balance-sheet conduit responsible for the bank's subprime exposure.
Despite 'challenging conditions', IKB said new disbursements in its core business units, corporate clients, real estate clients and structured financing continued to be 'encouraging' in the first half.
In the corporate clients segment, new business volumes rose to 2.8 bln eur from 2.1 bln a year earlier. In real estate they rose to 700 mln from 400 mln.
In early trade, IKB shares fell 6.83 pct to 7.50 eur.
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