Germany's NordLB May be Affected by Austrian Decision to Halt Heta Debt Repayments

By Monica Houston-Waesch

Germany's NordLB said it could be affected by an Austrian decision to halt debt repayments from bad bank Heta Asset Resolution, by as much as 380 million euros ($402 million).

That is the total amount of exposure NordLB has to Heta, with EUR245 million of that amount parked at its unit Deutsche Hypo, NordLB said in a statement. The full amount of the exposure is guaranteed by Austria's Kaernten state.

"NordLB expects the federal state of Kaernten to meet all contractual obligations," NordLB said.

NordLB will nevertheless make risk provisions and adjust the value of the bank's results for 2014 accordingly, it added.

The bank said it will still have met its target of improving pretax profit last year.

Austria's Financial Market Authority said this month that it will halt debt repayments from nationalized Heta, the wind down vehicle established to sort out the unwanted assets of defunct lender Hypo Alpe Adria. The regulator previously discovered a EUR7.6 billion ($8.08 billion) capital gap on EUR18 billion of assets.

Regionally-owned Bayerische Landesbank has EUR2.35 billion in unsecured credit lines outstanding to Heta and therefore has the largest exposure of all German banks, according to ratings firm Fitch.

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