LONDON, 7 March 2007 — Bahrain-based Gulf Finance House (GFH) yesterday announced a major restructuring of its operations into five distinct divisions and have recruited five new senior executives to head these divisions.
The new core areas of business combine new activities such as European private equity, asset management and property fund management with existing lines of business such as large project development and wealth management. According to Esam Janahi, chief executive officer of GFH, the bank “wishes to offer its clients more varied investment opportunities, capitalizing on the success of its core products. To this end, the bank has organized its operations into these five divisions headed by experienced and entrepreneurial managers who will ensure that our unique business model is capable of even more growth. The structure will allow the bank to continuously innovate on behalf of its clients, grow its product portfolio and, therefore, create value for shareholders.”
Earlier this month, GFH reported a 51 percent increase in net profits to $212 million for the year ending 31 December 2006 — up from the $140 million in 2005.In December, WestLB and Standard Bank in Lonodn and Austrias’s RZA lead arranged a $300 million fully underwritten revolving standby Murabaha syndication facility for GFH which attracted the subscription of some 30 participating banks from Europe, Asia and the Middle East.
Peter Panayiotou, deputy CEO of GFH, explained to Arab News that “the funds will be used for general corporate purposes and to fund the expansion of the Bank’s activities. We are setting up a European private equity team and building an asset management business. We are migrating away from just placing direct investments with clients to a more holistic wealth management approach. The new appointments will help spearhead the transition to a holistic wealth management function, which will obviously take some time because there are new skills set involved. To do this effectively, we need to have the right suite of investment products to satisfy the requirements of any particular investor. Today, we don’t have that. As such, there is a lot of work to do in this respect. However, this is why we have recruited top individuals to set up and spearhead our private equity and asset management business. I consider all these activities as the second phase of GFH’s development, which could take up to 10 years to fully develop.”
The new appointments include Joe McGrane, former managing director of Royal Bank of Scotland Development Capital Limited, who joins as the head of GFH’s European Private Equity operation; Keith Parker, previously of Al Habtoor Group of Companies of Dubai, who is the new head of the integrated infrastructure and real estate development (“large projects”) division; Tariq Kanoo, formerly of Goldman Sachs, who recently joined GFH as head of the Wealth Management division; Nick Judd, a founding partner of CapReal LLP in London, who joins GFH as head of property fund management; and Alan Durrant, Chief Investment Officer at Skandia Investment Management, who is joining GFH in April 2007 as the head of its Asset Management division.
GFH is particularly eyeing expansion into Europe and Asia during 2007 with the UK, France, Spain, Malaysia, Singapore, India and China the target markets. In 2006, the bank acquired a 10 percent stake in Asia Finance House, an Islamic bank authorized in Malaysia by Bank Negara (the central bank).
and whose other promoters are Rusd Investment Bank, Global Investment House; and Qatar Islamic Bank.
GFH has also got approval in principle from the Qatar Financial Centre to set up the first Islamic investment bank there. The Bank also launched three major projects — the $2.6 billion Energy City Qatar; the $1.4 billion Gateway to Morocco Project; and the proposed $2bn Energy City India Project. In Saudi Arabia, GFH is also participating in the $8bn Prince Abdulaziz bin Mousaed Economic City. In Egypt, GFH has signed an exclusive master agreement with the Ministry of Transport for the development of all transport infrastructure in the country. GFH is also in the process of establishing offices in London and Singapore subject to regulatory approvals.
GFH’s Peter Panayiotou is confident that in 2007 business in the GCC will start picking up.
