Gulf International Bank (GIB) said on Thursday, October 4, it had extended a $100-million loan to Bahrain to help finance a project for the expansion of an electrical power and desalination plant.
The agreement was signed by GIB's CEO Khaled Al-Fayez and Bahraini Finance and Economy Minister Abdullah Al-Seif, the bank said in a statement. Bahrain's government announced last June it had asked the country's banks for a $345-million loan to finance the second phase of the expansion project, which has been awarded to Alstom Power of France.
The plant is located in the northern Hidd region. Bahrain has another such plant in the eastern region of Sitra. Bahrain-based GIB, a wholesale commercial and investment bank, is partly owned by the Kuwait-based Gulf Investment Corporation (GIC).
GIC is a joint venture of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), which groups Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. It is active in regional and international financial and capital markets, and holds a 72.5 percent stake in GIB. Other shareholders in GIB are Saudi Arabia's central bank (22.2 percent) and JP Morgan Overseas Capital Corp (5.3 percent). — (AFP, Manama)
© Agence France Presse
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