Wednesday 6 May 2020

NMC Health collapse leaves battle lines drawn | Financial Times

NMC Health collapse leaves battle lines drawn | Financial Times:
BR Shetty set up healthcare provider NMC in 1975. It is now at the centre of one of the biggest scandals to engulf a FTSE 100 company © Bloomberg via Getty Images

For London’s financial centre, NMC Health had it all.

The Abu Dhabi-based hospital operator was an emerging market company with a seductive pitch to investors and a charismatic founder.

Entrepreneur BR Shetty, who set up NMC in 1975 after emigrating to the United Arab Emirates from his native India, hailed London’s “deep pool of capital” and “global profile” as the company prepared for its initial public offering in the UK capital in 2012.

Less than a decade later, NMC, the biggest private provider of healthcare in the UAE, is at the centre of one of the biggest scandals to engulf a FTSE 100 company. In a spectacular unravelling that began in December and accelerated in March, NMC discovered suspected fraud, disclosed more than $4bn of hidden debts and was forced into administration by its largest lender, Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank.

Alvarez & Marsal, the restructuring firm appointed as administrators, has sought to reassure staff that NMC’s hospitals and clinics will stay open to help battle the coronavirus that is now sweeping across the UAE.

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