Dusseldorf - Germany's IKB Industriebank AG, which has one of the nation's prominent casualties of the subprime crisis, reported Thursday a lower-than-expected loss as a tax benefit helped the group's earnings.

The Dusseldorf-based bank, which is currently up for sale, said its loss after tax for the year ended March 31 came in at 24 million euros (38 million dollars).

At the end of April the company's board had predicted a loss of 200 million euros. However, lower-than-expected deferred taxes helped the group to narrow the loss.

IKB has been on the market since the start of the year with the group having gone through a series of financial bailouts totalling 8.5 billion euros in the wake of the US subprime mortgage market crisis. (dpa)