Gulf Finance House (GFH), the leading Islamic investment bank in the Middle East, announced today that it has successfully reached an agreement on a refinancing of its major debt facility. GFH has replaced its $300m syndicated facility with a maturity date of 10th of February with a new $100m murabaha which has a tenor of six months, having repaid $200m on the initial due date.
GFH reached this agreement following a series of meetings held in London between its senior management and a syndicate of 32 financial institutions led by German bank, WestLB.
During the meetings, GFH elaborated on its new business model, its efficiency program, its plan to increase revenue streams, details of its upcoming sale of non-core assets as well as its liquidity profile.
“This agreement is indicative of lenders confidence in GFH’s business model, its ability to generate sustained revenue and return to profitability. We are happy with the agreement which shows the confidence in the strong financial position of the Kingdom of Bahrain,” commented GFH Chairman Dr. Esam Janahi.
“GFH was amongst the first institutions in the region that took the necessary actions to strengthen its position by its successful rights issue last year and is now probably the only institution to pay down a significant amount of its commitments due compared to most other institutions who are looking to renegotiate their entire facilities,” commented Acting CEO Ted Pretty. “Now we can concentrate on launching a series of compelling products from our deal pipeline and we will be announcing them shortly,” he continued.
“We were pleased that we were able to act as a bridge between the syndicate and GFH in finding an acceptable solution to all parties within such a short period of time. We believe that the terms of the refinancing provide GFH with the necessary time to execute the comprehensive plan presented to the banks to return to profitability. The fact that GFH was able to secure unanimous support of the banking group is as a direct result of the pragmatic way in which all parties approached the situation,” added David Pepper, Head of CEEMEA Syndicate at WestLB.
