Merckle may sacrifice Ratiopharm in bail-out

German billionaire entrepeneur Adolf Merckle, who owns generics firm Ratiopharm and Germany's biggest drug wholesaler Phoenix Pharmahandel,  has offered his drug empire as collateral on a loan extension from 40  banks that he is unable to repay on time due to the world financial  crisis.

The loans were due at the end of last year, but Mr Merckle, who lost out  heavily by short-selling stock in car-maker Volkswagen, now finds  himself unable to make the repayments before the deadline.

Talks on a new bridging loan and sustainable refinancing are to close in  January. The collective of banks has reportedly offered to freeze  payments and grant a three-month loan of 400.0 million euros ($559.5  million) as a rescue package, with a proportion of Mr Merckle's assets  as collateral - including all of Ratiopharm and Phoenix.