Cleary Gottlieb represented the managers, led by Merrill Lynch International and UBS Limited, in the July 4, 2007, $250 million offering of ordinary shares of Gulf Finance House B.S.C. in the form of global depositary receipts listed on the London Stock Exchange. The managers have since exercised an option to purchase an additional 10,600,000 ordinary shares in the form of global depositary receipts to cover over-allotments.
Gulf Finance House is a Bahrain-based leading regional provider of Sharia’a-compliant investment banking in the Gulf Cooperation Council region focused on high net worth individuals and institutional investors. The company originates and places investments in infrastructure for real estate projects in the GCC and other emerging markets, as well as in private equity opportunities and various asset management funds. Gulf Finance House has launched development infrastructure projects with an estimated development value exceeding $10 billion, and has made over $3 billion in equity investments in its projects. Prominent recent examples of its development infrastructure projects include Bahrain Financial Harbour and Al Areen Development in Bahrain, Legends in Dubailand in the UAE, Royal Metropolis in Jordan and Energy City – Qatar.