A court in London has put a freeze on any asset disposals by Dr. B.R. Shetty, founder of Abu Dhabi headquartered NMC Healthcare, as well as on other shareholders and former top executives, including Prasanth Manghat, who stepped down as CEO in late February last year.
The latest court order is sweeping in its impact – no assets held anywhere in the world by these individuals can now be sold. In recent months, court orders freezing Shetty’s assets had been issued in Dubai (by DIFC Courts) as well as in India after lenders – to NMC and Shetty individually – brought charges.
The verdict will “amplify the pressure” on Shetty and the others named, according to banking industry sources here. Manghat owns and operates hospitals and clinics in Kerala, including a specialty facility in Palghat.
He is believed to be in India, as are other former executives. They made their departures as soon as the NMC scandal came to light.
The UK court order stems from a request from Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank – the entity with the highest exposure to NMC, at an estimated Dh4 billion. Not just that, the ‘Financial Times’ reported that ADCB in its plaint specifically named Shetty – who founded NMC in the mid-1970s – as being the “chief protagonist” in the whole billion-dollar saga.
No comments:
Post a Comment