Kuwait’s Global Posts Q1 Loss

Global Investment House, the Kuwaiti investment firm currently undergoing its second debt restructuring in three years, saw its first-quarter loss narrow compared to the opening three months of last year, it said in a statement on Wednesday.

The company made a loss of KD11 million ($39.3 million) in the three months to March 31, versus a KD22 million loss for the same period of 2011, the statement to the Dubai stock exchange said.

The improved performance was helped by a drop in writedowns, with gains on investments recorded at KD746,000 versus a KD10.6 million loss in Q1 2011.

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.

Last week, Global said it won a long-running legal battle over an aborted buy of a stake in National Bank of Umm Al Qawain after an appeals court ordered the Abu Dhabi-listed bank to return its $250 million deposit plus $79 million in interest.

Sources said in January that Global had laid off 17 per cent 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 that exceeded 75 per cent of its capital.