Heavy losses at Hypo Real Estate

The collapse of Lehman Brothers added to Hypo's losses

Troubled German lender Hypo Real Estate (HRE) has announced a loss of 3.1bn euros ($3.9bn; £2.5bn) for the third quarter of this year.

HRE has been hit hard by the financial crisis and the loss was bigger than many analysts had expected.

The loss included a 2.5bn-euro write-off of intangible assets.

The group also announced a 50bn euro liquidity facility, available on Thursday, that has been partially guaranteed by the federal government.

The 600m euro loss not attributed to the write down was down to factors including the collapse of US bank Lehman Brothers, the troubles in Iceland and losses incurred on investments in asset management company Babcock & Brown.