WestLB could make 1 bln eur loss this year -report

DUESSELDORF, Germany, Dec 1 (Reuters) - German state-backed regional lender WestLB [WDKG.UL] will make a loss of up to 1 billion euros ($1.5 billion) this year, business weekly Focus reported on Saturday, citing banking sources.

The magazine said the bank, which is suffering from the crisis in global credit markets on top of a series of embarrassing trading losses this year, expected to make a loss of at least 800 million euros and possibly as high 1 billion.

It did not specify what kind of loss it meant.

A WestLB spokesman declined to comment on the figure, saying only that the bank's previous guidance still stood. WestLB has said it expects a pretax loss in the low triple-digit millions of euros after a profit of almost 800 million euros in 2006.

The German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, which owns 38 percent of WestLB, has been looking at options to dispose of its stake with the help of Citigroup (C.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), which is due to deliver a report on the matter soon.

The magazine, in its article due to be published on Monday, said North Rhine-Westphalia's state premier Juergen Ruettgers wanted WestLB to merge with the Duesseldorf savings bank.

WestLB may also buy troubled lender IKB (IKBG.DE: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), and Focus said the state government planned to do so, with the help of a capital increase in which the state government said all of WestLB's owners would have to participate. (Reporting by Matthias Inverardi)