#Dubai Islamic Bank wins ongoing legal tussle with NMC's administrators

Dubai Islamic Bank wins ongoing legal tussle with NMC's administrators

Dubai Islamic Bank on Sunday said it remained committed to the restructuring of NMC Healthcare but said the process "must be based on an acknowledgement of existing legitimate security interests" after winning the latest round of a legal tussle in the Abu Dhabi Global Market Courts.

The joint administrators for Abu Dhabi-based NMC, Richard Fleming and Benjamin Cairns of Alvarez & Marsal, had brought legal action against DIB in March in a dispute related to the lender's attempts to enforce its security over sums held by 12 insurers that the healthcare company had set aside as collateral for loans.

Administrators had argued that a moratorium on all legal proceedings related to the healthcare group had been secured once NMC Healthcare and 35 other entities were placed into administration in the ADGM Courts in September last year.

However, DIB had challenged ADGM Courts' jurisdiction to rule in its legal disputes with the insurers. In a hearing last week, the judge referred the case to arbitration, but ordered administrators to pay both their own and 75 per cent of DIB's legal costs thus far. The Dubai lender's legal costs to date are $1.2 million, Reuters reported last week, citing a court transcript that has yet to be filed on the ADGM Courts website.

"The judge affirmed that DIB was 'the overall winner in this phase of the legislation'," the lender said in a statement to the Dubai Financial Market, where its shares trade, on Sunday.

"In addition to the ADGM legal proceedings, DIB continues to successfully obtain judgments in our favour in the Dubai Courts ordering the relevant insurance companies to make payments" assigned to the lender under its loan agreement with NMC, it added.

"DIB is one of the largest creditors to the NMC Group. We affirm our commitment to support a restructuring of the NMC business to ensure its successful emergence from administration. Any such restructuring must be based on an acknowledgement of existing legitimate security interests in accordance with the provisions of applicable laws," the bank said.