The meetings, which were presided over by GFH Chairman of the Board, Dr. Ahmed Al-Mutawa, and attended by shareholders and members of the Board of Directors, were held at the bank’s Bahrain Financial Harbour headquarters.

Shareholders approved the appointment of eight new members to the Board for three years including: Dr. Ahmed Al Mutawa, Mosobah Al Mutairy, Salah Nourideen, Faisal Abdulla Fouad, Bashar Mohammed Almutawa, Yousef Ibrahim Y. Al Ghanim, Hafedh Fakher Mohammed and Dr. Khalid M. Al Khazraji.

At the same time, the Extraordinary General Meeting, which also took place, discussed and approved the issue by GFH of a Sukuk scheme or new debt facilities of up to $500 million, to be used to restructure the current liabilities, develop projects and for acquisitions of new businesses. Such facilities will be subject to CBB’s approval. The meeting also authorised the Board of Directors to determine the final structure of the Sukuk or the debt facilities and obtain the necessary approvals.

Dr. Ahmed Al-Mutawa, Chairman of the Board, said, “As announced, we ended the year with sound results and strong foundations upon which to build in 2014. For 2013, we reported a net profit of $6.3 million, reduced operating cost by 20 per cent and successfully restructured debt and received a healthy credit rating from Capital Intelligence. We also effectively executed our investment strategy, closing a number of transactions, while simultaneously making strong advances on maximising the value of our existing portfolio of companies and projects including preparing for a number of exits for the Bank and our investors in 2014. The sum of these actions has resulted in increased market confidence in the Bank, value creation and new and exciting opportunities, which we intend to develop over the coming months.”