By Tessa Walsh and David French
LONDON, January 14 | Fri Jan 14, 2011 1:47pm EST
LONDON, January 14 (Reuters) - Banks reduced their exposure
to Bahraini investment house Arcapita and Kuwait's Investment
Dar by selling syndicated loans at distressed levels this week,
loan traders said on Friday.
A $25 million piece of Investment Dar's (TIDK.KW) loan was
traded on Friday and a $30 million chunk of Arcapita's
[ARCAB.UL] loan traded earlier in the week, the traders said.
The sales show that banks are becoming more willing to sell
impaired Middle Eastern bank loans as they become more familiar
with the debt restructuring process.
The $30 million piece of Arcapita's loan traded at 76 cents
in the dollar. The paper was sold by WestLB and was bought by
distessed investor Yorvik, the traders said.
Arcapita also sold a portfolio of 29 senior living
communities in the US to two property companies for $630 million
on January 12.
Investment Dar's loan traded at just over 33 percent of face
value and was sold by one of the banks in an existing loan
syndicate, several traders said.
Some of Investment Dar's sukuk paper has already traded, but
this is one of the first synicated loan trades and follows an
earlier trade in the low 20s around three months ago, one of the
traders said.
Traders expect more sales to follow as Investment Dar's
co-ordinating committee meets on Monday to update creditors. The
committee has to approve new investors buying the paper.
While the $25 million trade is not a large piece of
Investment Dar's KWD1bn ($3.55bn) of liabilities - it buys a way into
the creditor negotiations.
Investment Dar's creditor committee consists of ABC Islamic
Bank, Al Rajhi Bank, Bank of Bahrain and Kuwait (BBK), Islamic
Development Bank, Jordan International Bank and Lloyds TSB.
The creditor meetings, which are scheduled to take place in
Dubai on January 17 and Kuwait on January 18, will be the first
full gathering since the new creditor committee was appointed at
the end of December. (Editing by Greg Mahlich)
Source: Reuters.Com
