FRANKFURT: Hypo Real Estate (HRE) plans to start a bidding process in the next few weeks to sell its public finance specialist unit, Depfa, German magazine Der Spiegel said, without saying where it obtained the information or what that process entailed.

Possible buyers for the state-rescued German bank are financial investors and non-European banks, Der Spiegel said.

Reuters reported in May that HRE had appointed Citi to organise the sale, which it must complete by the end of 2014 as a condition for the European Commission's approval of its bailout.

HRE plans to start the sale of Deutsche Pfandbriefbank in 2014, Der Spiegel reported.