Gulf Finance House (GFH), a Bahrain-based provider of Islamic investment banking products and services, has reported a net loss of $7.5m for the first quarter of 2010, compared to a loss of $37.7m for the same quarter of 2009.
GFH’s total income in the first quarter of 2010 was $18.5m compared to $49.5m in the corresponding quarter of 2009.
The company’s operating costs in the first quarter of 2010 were reduced by 45%.
Ted Pretty, CEO of GFH, said: “We continue to work hard to improve our underlying performance. We have been focused on reducing our operating costs and meeting our debt commitments, and our efforts have been compensated by an encouraging $24.5m improvement in GFH operating results on the previous quarter.
“Besides, despite very challenging market times GFH has seen its revenues grow to $18.5m and has started the marketing and placement of new products which are expected to make important contributions to revenue in the next quarters.
“Our objective is to ensure that we are well placed as the global markets improve. GFH had the courage to take the hard decisions in 2009 and now we can see a path to recovery for the Islamic finance sector. 2010 will be a bridge year from the challenges of 2009 to an improving market in 2010/2011.”