Answer: The Hypo Real Estate Holding AG
The Hypo Real Estate Holding AG is a holding company based in Munich, Germany which comprises a number of real estate financing banks. The company's activities span three sectors of the real estate market: commercial property, infrastructure and public finance, and capital markets and asset management. Hypo Real Estate is the second largest commercial property lender in Germany.
The bank originated in 2003 from the real estate financing business of HypoVereinsbank. It employs about 2,000 people and was one of the 30 members of the DAX stock index of the largest German companies between December 2005 and December 2008, before the shares were demoted to the MDAX. Its shares were further demoted to the SDAX in September 2009. In 2007 it acquired public finance company Depfa Bank. The company remains a legal entity as a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Hypo Real Estate Group.
The firm was bailed out by the Bundesbank and other German banks in October 2008 in the midst of the global financial crisis, before approving a complete nationalisation a year later.
