Kuwait firm wins relief in NBQ stake bid

Kuwait City: Kuwait's Global Investment House said it has won a long-running legal battle over an aborted attempt to buy a stake in National Bank of Umm Al Quwain (NBQ) after an appeals court ordered the Abu Dhabi-listed bank to return its deposit plus interest.

The $250-million (Dh918 million) sum was placed with NBQ in August 2008 as the first stage of Global's purchase of a 20 per cent stake in the bank through a Dh2.36-billion convertible bond issue.

However, as financial markets slumped in late-2008 and Global encountered debt problems which forced it into a restructuring, it cancelled the planned purchase and wanted the money back, but NBQ said it was entitled to keep it.

Last year, Global won an initial ruling from a Dubai court which NBQ later appealed. A UAE court halted the refund decision in June pending the appeal.

Restructuring effort

On top of the $250-million original deposit, NBQ will also pay an extra $79 million in interest, Global said in a statement on the Dubai bourse.

The company is in the midst of a second debt restructuring in three years. Having completed a $1.7 billion rescheduling in 2009, it said in September it would ask creditors to halt repayments while it sought a new deal.

Shares in Global, one of the largest investment houses in Kuwait, have not traded on the Kuwait Stock Exchange since December after the bourse suspended the stock for having accumulated losses which exceeded 75 per cent of its capital.