Gulf Finance House agrees $110m debt restructuring

22 May 2012

Six-year debt extension granted for troubled Bahraini bank

Bahrain’s Gulf Finance House (GFH) has agreed with its investors to restructure a $110m bond, giving the firm an extra six years to pay off the debt.

The company said in a statement that the sukuk (Islamic bond) will now mature in June 2018, with investors also allowing the firm an initial two-year grace period on repayments. Kuwait’s Liquidity Management House and Netherlands-based KPMG acted as advisers on the restructuring of the sukuk.

Since the onset of the financial crisis in 2009, GFH has spent most of the time trying to restructure its debts. Earlier in May, GFH said that first-quarter profit had dropped to $1m from $11.9m in the first quarter of 2011.

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