Factbox: A tale of five of German Landesbanken

Germany's Landesbanken are usually lumped together as one group thanks to their shared history and similar ownership structures, but there are significant differences between them.

The highlights from their results for the first half of 2013 are listed below, along with an overview of the banks.

The final table compares the Landesbanken's key measures to those of Europe's 30 largest listed banks (with size measured by market capitalisation). Data is sourced from companies' annual reports and other presentations.

HSH LBBW Nord LB Bayern LB Helaba Pretax Profits EUR98m (+416%) 260m(+34%) 96m(-27%) 719m(+457%) 336m(+17%) Total assets EUR121bn 307bn 208bn 266bn 181bn Cost/Income ratio 46% 58.50% 50.20% 52.20% 57% Tier 1 ratio* 15.90% 16.60% 11.13% 14.70% 11.70% Return on equity** 4% 4% 2.50% 10.30% 9.80%

LBBW

Headquarters: Stuttgart

Owners: Savings bank Association of Baden-Wuerttemberg (40.5%), State of Baden-Wuerttemberg (25%), City of Stuttgart (18.9%), Landesbeteiligungen BW (13.5%), Landeskreditbank Baden-W��rttemberg (2%)

Strategy: Corporate lending in its regional market, supporting local clients in their international activities. Acts as a central bank of the savings banks in Baden-W��rttemberg, Rhineland Palatinate and Saxony.

Key sector exposures: Public sector (18.6%), automotive (3.9%), as of June 30, 2013

International loan exposure: 30.5 billion euros of loans, 27 percent of total loan book as of June 30 2013

Staff numbers: 11,642 (end 2012)

Bayern LB

Headquarters: Berlin

Shareholders: Free State of Bavaria (50%), Association of Bavarian Savings Banks (50%)

Strategy: Regional lender to large and mid sized corporates in one of Germany's richest regions. Acts as central bank for its savings banks. Retail banking through DKB.

International loan exposure: 76.3 billion euros of loans, 26% of total, as of June 30, 2013.

Key sector exposures: Countries/public sector/non profits (19.7%), commercial real estate (16.3%), utilities (7.1%) as of June 30, 2013.

Staff numbers: 9,932 (end 2012)

Nord LB

Headquarters: Hanover

Owners: State of Lower Saxony (59.1%), State of Saxony-Anhalt (5.6%) and savings banks (35.3%)

Strategy: Corporate lending to regional market, also specialist shipping and aircraft financing for international clients. Acts as a central bank for savings banks from Lower Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt

Key sector exposures: Public administration (22.1%), shipping (7.8%), energy, water and mining (6%) as of 30 June 2013

International loan exposure: 40 billion euros of loans, 27% of total loan book as of June 30, 2013

Staff numbers: 4,280 (end 2012, including part-time)

Helaba

Headquarters: Frankfurt

Owners: Savings banks and Giro Association Hesse and Thuringia (68.8%), State of Hesse (8.1%), Free State of Thuringia (4.05%), Rhenish Savings Banks and Giro Association (4.75%), Savings Banks Association Westphalia-Lippe (4.75%), FIDES Beta GmbH (4.75%), FIDES Alpha GmbH (4.75%)

Strategy: Products and services for the savings banks, a development bank to further economic and structural policy objectives, and a commercial bank.

International loan exposure: 45.7 billion euros, as of June 30, 2013, 32% of total (including commitments which have not yet been drawn, excluding loans/committments to foreign banks, as of June 30, 2013)

Key sector exposures: Commercial real estate (34%), infrastructure loans (6.2%), mortgage lending (3.9%), as of June 30, 2013

Staff numbers: 6,075 (early 2013)

HSH Nordbank

Headquarters: Hamburg and Kiel

Owners: City State of Hamburg and State of Schleswig-Holstein (85.4%), JC Flowers & Co (9.3%), Savings Banks Association of Schleswig-Holstein (5.3%)

Strategy: Heavily orientated towards shipping loans, also general lending to larger SMEs. Provides services to savings banks

International loan exposure: 65 billion euros total exposure (includes loans and trading exposure) as of June 30, 2013

Key sector exposures: Shipping (20.5%), public sector (19.3%), land and buildings (13.7%) [includes both core bank and restructuring unit, as of June 30, 2013)

Staff numbers: 3,123 (end 2012, full time equivalents)

Landesbanken V European banking sector

Cost/Income ratio Tier 1 capital Return on equity

H1 2013 Jun-13 H1 2013* Top 30 European listed banks** 59.60% 13.69% 9.08% Top 5 Landesbanken 52.78% 14.01% 7.97% * RoE is annualised, as reported by the banks where available, and annualised geometrically where unpublished. ** Top 30 listed banks by market capitalisiation, as identified by Thomson Reuters Eikon. The Tier 1 capital ratio is the average of the 24 top 30 European banks that disclose on that basis. Where cost income/ratio and return on equity is not disclosed by banks, it is approximated as operating costs/gross income and after tax earnings/average shareholders equity.

(Reporting by Laura Noonan; editing by Philippa Fletcher)