(FRANKFURT) - Troubled German business lender IKB posted Tuesday a net loss of 965 billion euros (1.5 billion dollars) for its fiscal first half after pulling back from the brink of bankruptcy.

The specialist in loans to small- and medium-sized enterprises, which had postponed the release of results for the period from April to September 2007, had made a profit of 89 million euros in the same period a year earlier.

The bank has suffered very heavy losses in portfolio investments, largely on securities backed by high risk, or subprime, US mortgages on which borrowers have defaulted in large numbers.

IKB reiterated Tuesday its outlook for a loss of 200 million euros in the full year which ended March 2008.

Guarantees provided by private German banks to IKB were not included in its first half accounts.

IKB was one of the German banks hit hardest when the US subprime home loan market collapsed in August.

The group has benefited from a series of rescue packages put together by the German government and private banks worth around 10 billion euros so far.

German officials have now ordered an outside audit of IKB, in which state-owned development bank KfW has a dominant holding.

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