DUBAI: Gulf Finance House will sell its 50 percent stake in Bahrain Financial Harbor Holding to Emar Bahrain, the company said in a statement on Monday. The sale, which is part of the cash-strapped firm's strategy of divesting non-core assets, come as Gulf Finance House raises funds to repay a $300 million loan. Analysts have valued GFH's stake in Bahrain Financial Harbor at about $175 million. Emar Bahrain already owned about 50 percent in Bahrain Financial Harbor, according to Bahrain's commercial registry. The asset sale will help assuage investor fears of immediate liquidity concerns. GFH was once one of the bigger investment houses in the Gulf but it was badly hit by the regional property crunch, shrinking its balance sheet to about $1.3 billion. In February, the company narrowly avoided default after it struck an eleventh-hour deal with lenders to roll over $100 million of its loan by six months. In addition to cutting costs and diversifying its revenues, GFH promised lenders that it would sell down its assets. Other Bahrain-based investment houses have also struggled but had been more diversified than GFH, which bankers say was not much more than a trader of real estate across the numerous financial companies and special purpose vehicles it set up. The Kuwait-listed shares in GFH dropped 6 percent while its Bahrain-listed shares fell 7 percent on Monday.
