KUWAIT CITY (AP) — A senior Gulf Bank official says shareholders of the troubled Kuwaiti bank have covered 68 percent of the public subscription to double its capital. The rest will be bought by the state.
Fawzy al-Thunayan, the bank’s general manager for board affairs, says the results announced Monday were a “vote of confidence” in the financial institution.
The bank, Kuwait’s largest lender by assets, lost 375 million dinars ($1.3 billion) last year as a result of trading in derivatives and other financial instruments, sparking fears about broader bank failures in the country stemming form the global financial crisis.
The Central Bank has halted trading in the bank’s shares since October. The government has pledged its sovereign wealth fund, the Kuwait Investment Authority, will buy up the unpurchased shares.