Esam Janahi, chairman of troubled Bahraini investment house Gulf Finance House has resigned from the board of Khaleeji Commercial Bank, the bank said on Tuesday.

GFH, one of Bahrain's investment houses badly hit by a regional property crash, owns a 37 percent stake in Khaleeji, and Janahi owns an additional 10 percent.

Khaleeji said in a statement posted to the Bahrain Stock Exchange that Janahi had resigned from his post as a board member effective Feb 8, without providing further details.

GFH escaped default earlier this month when it struck an eleventh-hour agreement with lenders to roll over one third of a $300 million loan maturing Feb 10 by six months.

Experts say its stake in Khaleeji is one of the assets it could sell to avoid further funding difficulties. Janahi is also embroiled in a $125 million legal dispute brought against him by a former business partner over a property project in Qatar. -Reuters