It said it would repay $ 20 million of the original loan at maturity and that it had signed a new $ 80 million loan that it will pay down in four installments of $ 20 million each six months over the coming two years. Half of the original $ 100 million original facility, for which Bahrain-based Liquidity Management Centre (LMC) acted as lead arranger, matured this month, with the second half maturing in March 2011.
Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s has said the first tranche of the facility was due today. Like other Bahraini investment houses, GFH has been hard hit by the end to a regional property boom that swept away the sector’s business model of arranging property projects and private equity deals.
It staved off default on a $ 300 million loan maturing last month by rolling over a third of it by six months and is planning to sell down assets to improve its funding position.
