Gulf Finance House raises $100m from Deutsche Bank

16 November 2009

Bahrain-based bank still faces $300m refinancing challenge in February

Bahrain’s Gulf Finance House (GFH) has raised $100m from Germany’s Deutsche Bank through a convertible loan to help fund the bank’s new strategy of becoming an Islamic investment bank.

The loan follows an attempt by Deutsche Bank to arrange a $300m refinancing of a loan for GFH which matures in February 2010. The refinancing was abandoned in September. GFH said in a statement that it would now focus on the refinancing of this $300m debt facility.

The $100m loan is structured as a convertible Murabaha, an Islamic finance loan that is based on a sale and deferred payment with pre-agreed cost and profit margins.

GFH has embarked on several other financing efforts including another $100m Islamic loan that was provided by Australia’s Macquarie Group in August and a $300m rights issue that was completed in early November. The bank also raised about $51m from the sale of part of its stake in Qatar’s QInvest in late October (MEED 2:11:09).

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