Global Investment Loss Narrows as Provisions Drop

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Global Investment House KSCC, which is restructuring $1.73 billion in debt, said its full-year net loss narrowed as the Kuwait-based investment Bank allocated less provisions to cover bad assets.

The loss was 148.8 million dinars ($516.7 million), or 122 fils a share, compared with 257.6 million dinars, or 225 fils a share, a year earlier, the company said in an e-mailed statement today. Global made 35.2 million dinars of impairment provisions last year, compared with 153 million dinars in 2008, it said in a separate statement to the Dubai bourse.

The company, which has defaulted on loan repayments, said in January it is in talks to sell “many” assets to help repay its borrowings. Global said today it made a 200,000 dinar profit from selling a stake in its real-estate finance unit in Egypt to Arab African International Bank.