GFH Financial Group completed the issuance of its $500 million (Dh1.83 billion) sukuk programme. Courtesy Nasdaq Dubai
GFH Financial Group completed the issuance of its $500 million (Dh1.83 billion) sukuk programme. Courtesy Nasdaq Dubai
GFH Financial Group completed the issuance of its $500 million (Dh1.83 billion) sukuk programme. Courtesy Nasdaq Dubai
GFH Financial Group completed the issuance of its $500 million (Dh1.83 billion) sukuk programme. Courtesy Nasdaq Dubai

Bahrain's GFH Financial Group completes $500m sukuk issuance


Sarmad Khan
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Bahrain's GFH Financial Group completed the issuance of its $500 million (Dh1.83 billion) sukuk programme after selling the remaining amount of $200m.

The investment bank did not provide the details of the transaction in a filing to the Dubai Financial Market, where its shares trade.

“The proceeds from the sukuk issuance will be used to further strengthen GFH’s balance sheet and diversify its income,” it said on Tuesday.

The deal comes after a $300m Islamic bond that the company sold in January this year.

The five-year sukuk was two and a half times oversubscribed, with the order book exceeding $750m.

There was strong participation from international investors who received 48 per cent of the allocation, with the remaining 52 per cent going to regional investors, the company said at the time.

The deal in January was GFH’s first debt capital markets transaction since 2008.

Shuaa Capital, along with other parties, priced and issued the sukuk.

In February, GFH acquired a 70 per cent stake in FinTech company Marshal – its second major investment in a technology business – through its investment banking arm, GFH Capital.

The lender's  first major technology investment was its acquisition of an 85 per cent stake in discount voucher app The Entertainer in 2018.

It has since invested extensively in expanding its real estate portfolio.

The bank purchased a US hospitality portfolio in partnership with investment firm Arbor Lodging Partners for $250m in February.

Earlier this year, GFH reported a 38.7 per cent decline in its 2019 fourth-quarter net profit to $6.5m.

Higher provisions for credit losses from the group’s commercial banking subsidiary affected quarterly financial results, it said, without providing the provision figures.

The bank’s full-year profit for 2019 also fell by 29.8 per cent to $80.1m.

GFH’s revenue, however, climbed to $335.7m from $286.2m reported at the end of 2018, it said at the time.

Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”

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