Bahrain Islamic in rights issue at 100 fils per share

Lossmaking Bahrain Islamic Bank plans a rights issue at 100 fils per share, 37 percent below Monday's closing price, making it the first of Bahrain's main retail banks to raise new equity capital since the financial crisis.

Bahrain Islamic's shares, which rarely trade on Bahrain's stock exchange last closed at 159 fils. The local retail lender, in which the Kuwait government holds a controlling stake, has a market capitalisation of about $307 million.

It did not say how many shares it would issue, how much it wanted to raise or what the money was for, but said the share issue was for existing shareholders only.

Several Bahraini investment houses have raised capital to shore up their balance sheet after they were badly hit by a regional property crash late in 2008.

Bahrain Islamic posted a full-year net loss of 19.4 million Bahraini dinars ($51.46 million) for 2009 and a 6.9 million loss for the second quarter of this year.

Officials at the bank were not immediately available to provide further details on the planned rights issue.

There are 1,000 fils to the Bahraini dinar. (Reuters)