Mumtalakat of Bahrain Full-Year Loss More Than Doubles to $485 Million - Bloomberg

Bahrain Mumtalakat Holding Co., the Persian Gulf country’s sovereign wealth fund, said its loss for 2009 more than doubled from a year earlier due to “the truly global effects of the economic crisis.”

The net loss widened to 183 million dinars ($485 million) from 69 million dinars in 2008. Revenue fell 28 percent to 1.04 billion dinars from 1.45 billion dinars a year earlier, the company said in an e-mailed statement today.

“I would characterise 2009 as a year in which we took an inward looking approach to prepare for the future,” Talal al Zain, chief executive officer of Mumtalakat, said in the statement. The company sees an opportunity to this year “potentially start the process of rebalancing our portfolio through measured steps which fit in with our role of investing for Bahrain,” he added.