Kuwait's Global Investment 2011 net loss narrows

Kuwait's Global Investment 2011 net loss narrows

Kuwait's Global Investment House , which is undergoing its second debt restructuring in three years, said 2011 net loss narrowed compared with the previous year, helped by lower write downs of its financial assets.

May 8, 2012 7:41 by kippreport

The firm, one of the largest investment houses in Kuwait, posted a net loss of 57.5 million dinars ($207.1 million) last year, versus a loss of 73.2 million dinars in 2010, it said in a bourse filing on Tuesday.

It is the third straight year that Global has reported an annual loss, having lost 148.2 million dinars in 2009.

Fee and commission income fell to 14.1 million dinars in 2011, compared with 20.7 million dinars in the previous year.

The company benefited from a big drop in writedowns on the fair value of its financial assets, which dropped to 2.1 million dinars in 2011 versus 35.6 million dinars in 2010.

Global said in September it would ask creditors to delay repayments on its debt so it could undertake a second restructuring of its obligations since the global financial crisis hurt its financial portfolio.

The company had reached a deal with creditors in December 2009 to reschedule $1.7 billion in debt and entered into new three-year facilities with each of its 53 lending banks.

Sources said in January that Global had laid off 17 percent of its staff, or 60 employees out of 350, across the Gulf region as part of cost-cutting measures at the debt-laden firm.

Shares in Global have not traded on the Kuwait Stock Exchange since December after the bourse suspended the stock for having accumulated losses which exceeded 75 percent of its capital. ($1 = 0.2777 Kuwaiti dinars)

(Reporting by David French; Editing by Dinesh Nair)