HAMBURG - German regional lender HSH Nordbank said it will take some more months to reach a deal with its government owners and the European Commission in a long-running wrangle over state guarantees. “The aim is to reach an agreement in principle in coordination with our owners by autumn 2015,” HSH Nordbank said on Friday. It had previously expected a deal by summer. Known primarily as a ship financier, HSH ran into trouble from the downturn in global trade that followed the financial crisis and had to seek support from its government majority owners, the state of Schleswig-Holstein and city-state of Hamburg. HSH is still struggling to deal with its legacy ship portfolio and the burden of paying fees for the 10 billion euros ($11 billion) in guarantees provided by the states. “Our balance sheet needs substantial relief now, particularly with a view to our billions of euros in shipping loans,” HSH Nordbank Chief Executive Constantin von Oesterreich said in a statement. The Commission will rule on changes to the guarantees and conditions after talking to HSH and its owners. HSH’s pretax profit fell by half to 222 million euros in the first six months of the year. For the whole of 2015, it is likely to be well below the 278 million booked last year, von Oesterreich said. ($1 = 0.8858 euros) (Reporting by Jan Schwartz in Hamburg and Jonathan Gould in Frankfurt; Editing by Georgina Prodhan)