The group of banks with which Merckle family negotiated the granting of a bridge loan, has transferred 400 million euros ($538.7 million). The information was revealed by two sources familiar with the matter, Reuters reported.

The bridge loan gives the business conglomerate time to reorganize its finances.

On Monday, the man who has build the Merckle financial empire during the past fourth decades, Adolf Merckle, took his own life under the crushing pressure of the financial crisis that has brought his empire to the brink of collapse. Germany’s wealthiest men negotiated with creditors for weeks in order to save his companies, but couldn’t take it anymore and killed himself.

The 74-year-old billionaire threw himself under a train on Monday (January 5). The incident happened in the town of Blaubeuren in southern Germany, just a few hundred meters from his home. His family confirmed the fact that it was a suicide.

“The desperate situation of his companies caused by the financial crisis, the uncertainties of the last few weeks and his powerlessness to act, have broken the passionate family entrepreneur,” said the statement released by his family.

In an interview in December, the German billionaire said that he had overcome many market crashes, but that he could not have anticipated a financial and banking crisis of this size.

Merckle owed banks about 5 billion euros ($6.7 billion). The entrepreneur’s family holding controlled giant companies such as Phoenix Group, Germany’s largest drug wholesaler and VEM Vermoegensverwatung Gmbh, Germany’s largest cement company.

According to Forbes estimations, Adolf Merckle had a $9.2 billion fortune.