HVB Group, Germany's second biggest bank, has appointed five investment banks to participate in its €3bn ($3.75bn) capital increase in order to prop up its finances after suffering a €2.1bn pre-tax loss because of investment writedowns in 2003.
The loss, which dwarfed the €853m annual loss at HVB in 2002 â the first in the banking group's history â was driven by a €2bn writedown on its investment portfolio during the fourth quarter of 2003.
