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Deal to save Germany’s Hypo Real Estate fails

Germany's No. 2 commercial property lender, Hypo Real Estate Holding AG, said Saturday that a $48 billion rescue plan for the company had fallen apart.
/ Source: The Associated Press

Germany's No. 2 commercial property lender, Hypo Real Estate Holding AG, said Saturday that a $48 billion rescue plan for the company had fallen apart after private lenders withdrew support.

Hypo said it would seek to stay in business through "alternative measures," but it did not say what those might be.

The company said it was "in the process of determining the consequences" of the rescue plan's failure, according to a statement.

Hypo was the first German blue chip to seek a government rescue after running into trouble in mid-September as credit froze on international markets.

The plan — approved on Thursday by the EU — would have entailed the German government injecting $37 billion and a "liquidity line to be provided by a consortium of several financial institutions," the company said.

"The consortium has now declined to provide the line," it said, without identifying the banks in the consortium. The government had said last week that none were foreign.

The German government had no immediate comment on the plan's collapse. A spokeswoman for German financial regulator BaFin also declined to comment.