MANAMA: Gulf Finance House (GFH) yesterday announced that it had completed the subscription of its $300 million rights issue offering to existing shareholders of the bank.

The rights issue offering closed last Thursday.

The popularity of the capital raising alongside the continuing success of the bank's broader capital raising initiatives means GFH will have raised a total of $450m.

The additional liquidity will support the execution and implementation of the bank's strategic plan to become a diversified and broadly based Islamic investment bank.

A separate announcement will be made regarding the details of the rights issue.

The rights issue is a key component in a three-part capital management plan designed to raise between $300m and $500m.

The plan includes a rights issue of up to $300m, the placement of up to two $100m convertible murabaha facilities and the sale of non-core assets.

In addition to the $300m subscription of its rights issue in recent weeks, GFH also announced the planned placement of the first $100m murabaha with Macquarie Group and the partial sale of Qinvest to Qatar Islamic Bank for approximately $50m.

"When we embarked on our capital raising initiatives, we knew success would be governed by the level of faith our shareholders and strategic partners had in both the refined business plan and the team responsible for its implementation," GFH Group chief executive officer Ahmed Fahour said.

"With over $450m of new capital that will be available shortly, alongside advanced discussions on the placement of the second $100m murabaha facility and further non-core asset sales, GFH has a clear mandate to pursue its goal of emerging as the world's leading Islamic investment bank," Mr Fahour added.