Bahrain’s GFH Completes Capital Reduction Plan, Cuts Losses

Bahrain-based Gulf Finance House has completed a capital reduction plan, a move that helps the Islamic investment firm to cut accumulated losses, it said in a statement on Wednesday.

It had received approval from the Bahraini authorities for the step, which reduces the nominal value of its shares by 13.8 per cent to $0.265 per share from $0.3075, it said. As a result, paid-up capital had been reduced to $837.9 million from $972.3 million.

Accumulated losses on GFH’s balance sheet had been reduced by $134.4 million under the measure, it said. The statement did not specify if it had further accumulated losses.

The reduction doesn’t involve any cash transfer and doesn’t impact on shareholder positions as the bank’s net equity remains unchanged. However, under accountancy rules, it will help to remove accumulated losses from GFH’s balance sheet.

GFH suffered badly during the global financial crisis, needing several debt restructurings, as it struggled to contend with a slowdown in its main advisory business and the debt it had taken on during the boom years.

GFH had said in May it expected to complete the capital reduction by the end of the second quarter.