German billionaire Adolf Merckle walked out of his home on Monday night and threw himself in front of a running train near the station in the southern German town of Blaubeuren, and very close to a factory he founded.

The 74-year-old Merckle leaves behind his wife, three sons and a daughter and a suicide note, the contents of which were not revealed.

Local police and firefighters cleared the tracks near the station very close to the Ratiopharm GmbH drug company he owned.

Merckle was deeply in debt as he lost nearly €400 million ($539.4 million) when he laid wrong-way bets on the volatile Volkswagen stock, which soared when rival Porsche chose to increase its stake in the company in October and Heidelberg Cement, which is controlled by his family, lost 70 per cent in value due to the global economic crisis.

The German billionaire, according to Forbes magazine, ranked 94 on the list of richest people in the world with an estimated fortune of $9.2 billion, was running a business empire with £27.3 billion in annual sales employing around 100,000 people.

His vast portfolio of business interests includes the generic drug company-Ratiopharm, a huge stake in Heidelberg Cement and Phoenix Pharmahandel, a stake in a company that makes vehicles for ski slopes and stakes in a sugar refinery and one of Germany's oldest foundries.

"The desperate situation of his companies, caused by the financial crisis, the uncertainties of the last few weeks and his powerlessness to act, broke the passionate family entrepreneur and he took his own life," a family statement said.

The governor of the state of Baden-Württemberg, where the Merckle family was based, had considered giving a loan to the billionaire but backed out after a public outcry and his holding company, VEM  Vermoegensverwaltung, was negotiating with 30 banks where he owed about €5 billion ($6.7 billion).

Although he was able to secure €400 million ($547 million) bridge loans to refinance his debts just a day before his death, the cost of the loan however was high as media reports suggest that the banks had demanded that the German billionaire sell his stakes in Heidelberg Cement, Ratiopharm and Phoenix Pharmahandel.

Even though he received the €400 million ($547 million) bridge loan, his companies medium-term financing needs were far greater than the loan that he got.

Merckle and his family made Blaubeuren, a small town in southern Germany, their home in 1945 after fleeing from the German-Czech border region of Sudetenland and in 1967 took over his grandfathers pharmaceutical business, which had just 80 employees and made it into a huge business empire with 120-firms having varied interest like generic drugs, cement and even owing a ski slope among others.

Although having studied law, Merckle went on to start Ratiopharm, a generic drug company which had sales of €1.8 billion in 2007 and later started a drug wholesale company called Phoenix, which had a turnover of €21.6 billion in 2008.

He also acquired the British building materials supplier, Hanson Plc for £9.5 billion and merged it with his cement company, Heidelberg Cement.

Media-shy, Merckle led a very quiet life and his passion included mountain climbing and skiing and most of the time even cycled to work.