Bahrain’s GFH to list Khaleeji bank subsidiary

Reuters

GFH Financial Group plans to list its Bahraini subsidiary Khaleeji Commercial Bank in Dubai and acquire a financial services company to increase shareholder value, GFH’s chief executive said.
“We are hoping to list Khaleeji Commercial Bank on DFM (Dubai Financial Market), which will help increase the value of the bank, and to offer fee-based financial services, helping to diversify our revenue base,” Hisham Al-Rayes said.
Rayes, speaking at a public event to discuss GFH’s plans, did not say when the Dubai listing might take place or give further details of the share offer. GFH owns a 47 percent stake in Khaleeji worth $78.6 million based on its stock price in Bahrain, according to the data.
GFH is in talks with the financial services firm that it might take over, Al-Rayes said without giving details.
An Islamic financial firm, Bahrain-based GFH is itself listed on three Gulf bourses: Bahrain, Dubai and Kuwait. It is often the most heavily traded stock in Dubai.
Crippled by the global financial crisis in 2008, GFH went through several debt restructurings. Rayes said the company was now wanted to become regarded by investors as a financial holding company rather than an investment bank.
The company aims to generate around 15 percent of its income over the next two years from real estate investments, which will be managed by a new Dubai-based operation called GFH Real Estate.
It is currently involved in property projects in Bahrain, Dubai, India and Tunisia. Its private equity operation is looking at possible deals in the United States, Britain and Saudi Arabia, Rayes said without giving details.
Last October GFH agreed to acquire a US industrial real estate portfolio in a deal worth $125 million.
, and in May last year it said it would buy a mall in the Saudi Arabian city of Jeddah.

for $48 million.