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GFH appoints Deutsche Bank to raise capital

DUBAI — Gulf Finance House EC (GFH), the Bahrain- based investment bank, appointed Deutsche Bank AG as the structuring agent for a planned $300 million increase in share capital and named Esam Janahi as its executive chairman.

The company plans to raise new capital through the issue of equity-linked convertible murabahas or similar instruments, the Manama-based bank said in an e-mailed statement today. A murabaha contract is a commodity trade-based agreement that allows a borrower to repay debt at cost plus a pre-agreed profit rate to comply with Shariah law’s ban on interest. The money will be used for acquisitions and growth initiatives, it said. “We have taken the hard decisions to clean up our balance sheet, reschedule our long-term debt and develop a leaner operating model,” Ted Pretty, Gulf Finance House’s group chief executive officer, said in the statement. “We now need to aggressively pursue new business in new markets.”

Gulf Finance House is restructuring after the global financial crisis froze debt markets, hurting companies and investors in the region. The company said Aug. 19 its first-half loss narrowed to $47.7 million from $92.1 million in the year- earlier period after it cut costs and liabilities.

Janahi was the founder of the bank and its CEO until 2007, when he was elected chairman. As chairman his role was to advise the bank on operational matters for the short and medium term, according to the bank’s website.