Bahrain-based Gulf International Bank, one of the worst-hit financial institutions in the oil-rich Middle East, has sold $4.8bn of toxic assets to its shareholders, six Arab Gulf governments.
GIB, an investment bank owned jointly by the six hydrocarbon-rich members of the Gulf Co-operation Council, invested heavily in complicated debt-based toxic assets. Due to swingeing impairments and exposure to US banks such as Lehman Brothers, GIB has reported two years of losses totalling $1.1bn.
The bank’s shareholders – led by Saudi Arabia – injected an additional $1bn of capital in February 2008 to prevent the bank from going under and speculation of a Saudi-led takeover has been around since.
No comments:
Post a Comment