Kuwait’s Global Investment House meets first-year debt repayment

Kuwait’s Global Investment House (GIH) has completed the first year of its debt rescheduling after making a principal payment of $27m.

“With this payment, Global met its first-year repayment commitment stated in the debt rescheduling agreement signed with 53 lending banks on 10 December 2009,” GIH, one of Kuwait’s biggest investment firms, said in a statement published on 12 December.

The agreement stated that GIH should settle 10 per cent of the total debt, equivalent to $172.5m, within the first year.

“Following repayments of $28.9m on 21 April, $50m on 21 July and $72.5m on 21 October, the company has now repaid a total of $178.3m, which is $5.8m in excess of the agreed repayments due in the first year,” read the statement.

“Since signing the rescheduling agreement, Global has made interest payments of $82m in addition to settling the KD20m ($71.1m) bond on its due date of 23 December 2009, less than two weeks after signing the debt rescheduling agreement.”

In January 2009, GIH said that it was in default on “the majority of its financial indebtedness”, which totalled about $3bn.