Manama :  Bahrain's Gulf Finance House (GFH), which is trying to raise more capital to improve its liquidity, made a second-quarter net loss of $39.9 million, according to Reuters calculations.

The Islamic investment house said in a statement its net loss during the first half of the year was $47.7 million, compared with $92.1 million during the year-earlier period.

GFH, which did not disclose details for the second quarter, made a net loss of $54.4 million in the second quarter of 2009.

Bahraini investment houses came under pressure after a regional property crash in 2008 effectively ended their business model of earning fees on investor money they raised for property and real estate projects. GFH has managed to reduce its losses mainly through cost cuts. But it has struggled to sell its assets to pay debts it took during the boom years.