Railway suicide of tycoon who lost billions

A TYCOON who lost $4billion in the global financial meltdown has committed suicide by throwing himself under a train, it was revealed this afternoon.

Adolf Merckle, 74, was left a broken man by the plunge in the value of his businesses - even though he was still worth $5billion when he died and a rescue package had been agreed.

He was found dead on a railway line near his home in the Bavarian village of Blauberen near Ulm last night. Police discovered a suicide note nearby.

The Merckle family said: "The economic state of distress of his companies caused by the financial crisis and the associated uncertainties of the last weeks, as well as the powerlessness not to be able to act any more broke this passionate family entrepreneur, and he terminated his life."

Mr Merckle, a father of four, had been head of a conglomerate of drug firms, engineering and cement industries employing 100,000 people. Last month his business empire stood on the brink of collapse as the Royal Bank of Scotland turned down a further bridging loan of 400million euros to rescue it.

His vast family empire lost $1billion in November alone when VW shares went through the roof and he bet the wrong way.

Other lenders came to the rescue after Mr Merckle threatened to push his empire into bankruptcy. A deal to save the firms was finally put in place on Sunday. But sources said his depression was "too deep, his losses too great to bear".

Mr Merckle controlled British firm Hanson, the pharmaceutical group Ratiopharm, Heidelberg Cement and one of Europe's biggest wholesale drug distributors, Phoenix.

Earlier last month his linen industries lost half of their capital value because of threatened writedowns on fixed assets. Together with German high street bank Commerzbank and regional lender Baden-Wuerttemberg Landesbank, RBS had the biggest exposure to his engineering, pharmaceutical and textiles empire.

In 2006 he had been the 36th richest man in the world, according to Forbes.

Mr Merckle inherited a small pharmaceutical company from his father that employed 80 people in the Sixties.

Little by little, he built an empire, with sales of about 35 billion euros. A modest man who shunned the billionaire lifestyle, he was an avid mountain climber whose only luxury was to go on expeditions to the Andes and Himalayas.

Heidelberg Cement bought Hanson, once one of Britain's most famous companies, in September 2007. It employs 6,500 people in the UK and remains a key part of the construction industry.

It will be one of the biggest suppliers of cement for the construction of the London Olympics.

RBS was one of Mr Merckle's main bankers but since being nationalised in the wake of the global banking crisis it has clamped down on lending.

How much RBS now stands to lose is open to question. The bank declined to comment. Mr Merckle had earlier threatened to push his business into insolvency. This was regarded as a tactic to force the hands of his bankers.

Police said they are concentrating on "suicide as the probable cause". A spokesman said: "No other person is being sought in connection with his death."