Nationalized property financier Hypo Real Estate (HRE) is expected to unload EUR 180 bn to EUR 200 bn of high-risk assets into a bad bank during the coming weeks, according to a report in German weekly Der Spiegel. That would mean the assets would no longer have to be written off.

The move hinges on approval from the EU Commission and Germany's financial market stabilisation fund Soffin. Up to now, HRE has received over EUR 6 bn in financial assistance and some EUR 95 bn in government guarantees.

HRE posted a net loss of EUR 574 mln in the third quarter of 2009, marking the German real estate lender's fifth consecutive quarterly loss. The performance in the July to September period brings the banking group's net loss for the first nine months of the year to EUR 1.71 bn. In the same period in 2008 the group suffered a loss of EUR 3 bn.