The German bank Hypo Real Estate (HRE) was granted a last-minute “multi-billion euro” credit line from a consortium of German banks that allowed it to avoid declaring bankruptcy, it said yesterday.
A consortium has provided the troubled real estate lender “a major new credit facility which is designed to shield the company from the impact of the current malfunctioning of the international money markets,” a statement said.
The unspecified amount was “sufficient to cover the group’s funding needs well into the future,” it said.
WATCHDOG
The German central bank and the stock market watchdog BaFin said separately that they “felt that Hypo Real Estate’s viability was thus guaranteed.”
The lender had launched talks with unidentified German banks “in response to the extremely challenging conditions on the international money markets following the Lehman collapse and other market disruptions,” HRE said in reference to the bankrupt US investment bank Lehman Brothers.
Banks that normally borrow money on interbank markets have seen that source dry up since the US subprime mortgage crisis erupted more than a year ago.
Institutions that depended on regular refinancing of their debts have found themselves running into crisis.
RESCUE
The daily Financial Times Deutschland reported yesterday that private German banks had been trying “feverishly” to find a way to rescue the institution, hit hard by the US subprime loan crisis that began in August last year.
The report said the bank, which is listed among Germany’s 30 blue chip Dax index companies, had fallen victim to speculation by its German-Irish unit Depfa.
The newspaper said Depfa had pursued long-term projects with heavy loans and generally ensured refinancing only at the last minute, which because of the global credit crunch was no longer possible.
TAB
HRE would have to pick up the tab for the refinancing, estimated to be in the double-digit billions of euros range, according to the report.
“It is highly unlikely at the present time that HRE will be able to come up with that amount,” Financial Times Deutschland wrote ahead of the reported rescue package.
HRE, incorporated in October 2003 in Munich, operates in three sectors: commercial real estate; public sector and infrastructure finance; and capital markets and asset management.
Conflict with Taiwan could leave China with “massive economic disruption, catastrophic military losses, significant social unrest, and devastating sanctions,” a US think tank said in a report released on Monday. The German Marshall Fund released a report titled If China Attacks Taiwan: The Consequences for China of “Minor Conflict” and “Major War” Scenarios. The report details the “massive” economic, military, social and international costs to China in the event of a minor conflict or major war with Taiwan, estimating that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) could sustain losses of more than half of its active-duty ground forces, including 100,000 troops. Understanding Chinese
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday said it is closely monitoring developments in Venezuela, and would continue to cooperate with democratic allies and work together for regional and global security, stability, and prosperity. The remarks came after the US on Saturday launched a series of airstrikes in Venezuela and kidnapped Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who was later flown to New York along with his wife. The pair face US charges related to drug trafficking and alleged cooperation with gangs designated as terrorist organizations. Maduro has denied the allegations. The ministry said that it is closely monitoring the political and economic situation
UNRELENTING: China attempted cyberattacks on Taiwan’s critical infrastructure 2.63 million times per day last year, up from 1.23 million in 2023, the NSB said China’s cyberarmy has long engaged in cyberattacks against Taiwan’s critical infrastructure, employing diverse and evolving tactics, the National Security Bureau (NSB) said yesterday, adding that cyberattacks on critical energy infrastructure last year increased 10-fold compared with the previous year. The NSB yesterday released a report titled Analysis on China’s Cyber Threats to Taiwan’s Critical Infrastructure in 2025, outlining the number of cyberattacks, major tactics and hacker groups. Taiwan’s national intelligence community identified a large number of cybersecurity incidents last year, the bureau said in a statement. China’s cyberarmy last year launched an average of 2.63 million intrusion attempts per day targeting Taiwan’s critical
AGING: As of last month, people aged 65 or older accounted for 20.06 percent of the total population and the number of couples who got married fell by 18,685 from 2024 Taiwan has surpassed South Korea as the country least willing to have children, with an annual crude birthrate of 4.62 per 1,000 people, Ministry of the Interior data showed yesterday. The nation was previously ranked the second-lowest country in terms of total fertility rate, or the average number of children a woman has in her lifetime. However, South Korea’s fertility rate began to recover from 2023, with total fertility rate rising from 0.72 and estimated to reach 0.82 to 0.85 by last year, and the crude birthrate projected at 6.7 per 1,000 people. Japan’s crude birthrate was projected to fall below six,
RSS