IslamicFinance.de

Frederik Richter reported on Arabianbusiness on 1 February that Gulf Finance House is looking for acquisitions of undervalued assets in the region.

Deputy Chief Executive Mehran Jamsheer was cited.

Bahrain's Gulf Finance House has reported a Q4 loss of USD 10 mn after it made 'provisions on investments' compared with net income of USD 108.8 mn for the same period. Total year earnings are down to USD 291 mn (Dh 107 mn) in 2008 compared to USD 340 mn in 2007.

Press Release
PARIS (Standard & Poor's) Jan. 26, 2009--Standard & Poor's Ratings Services said today that it revised its outlook on Bahrain-based Gulf Finance House (GFH) to negative from stable. At the same time, we affirmed the 'BBB-/A-3' long- and short-term counterparty credit ratings on the bank.

"The outlook revision reflects the increasingly difficult environment in which the bank operates, which is likely to limit its capacity to execute new transactions and therefore lead to a weaker financial performance," said Standard & Poor's credit analyst Emmanuel Volland.

In addition, the value of GFH's own investments, largely illiquid by nature, is set to decline. On a positive note, we believe that the nature of these assets means that they are less subject to marked-to-market deterioration than those of GFH's peers.

Vision 3 is strategic alliance formed by the trio of leading Middle Eastern banks, Gulf Finance House (GFH), Ithmaar Bank and Abu Dhabi Investment House (ADIH). The primary goal of Vision 3 is to create tailored Islamic financial institutions. Vision 3 has already announced the creation of InfraCapital, the GCC's first investment bank specialising in the provision of tailored infrastructure development and finance; AgriCap, a new investment vehicle focused entirely on serving agricultural ventures and communities and Hospitality Development Fund (HDF), established to nurture and support opportunities across the global hospitality sector.

The board members include GFH chairman Esam Janahi who will be chairman of the company, Bonyan International chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) Imad Nesnas, ADIH chief executive officer Rashad Janahi and Ithmaar Development Company CEO Mohamed Khalil Al Sayed

Xinhua reported on 9 January that Gulf Finance House (GFH) launches a new USD 3 bn project in Tunisia, named "Tunis City Communication". In December 2007 GFH has already announced the "Tunis Financial Harbour", with an investment close to USD 3 bn.

Gulf News reported on 11 April that Gulf Finance House aims to develop the USD 10 bn Caspian Energy Hub in collaboration with the Government of Kazakhstan and PFC Energy International and signed a Memorandum of Understanding. The project, shall be a services hub that caters to commercial, technical and human resource needs of the oil and gas industry in the Caspian region. The hub also aims to become a global technical training centre for the oil & gas industry.

Esam Janahi is chairman of Gulf Finance House, Vahan Zanoyan is CEO of PFC Energy International and both presented the concept to Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazar. Ulf Wokurka is deputy chairman of the Management Board of Kazakhstan Holding for Management of State Assets. Gani Uzbekov is deputy chairman of the Board of Sustainable Development Fund called "Kazyna".

Source: http://archive.gulfnews.com/business/Oil_and_Gas/10204695.html