Originally posted to The Guardian website, 29 May 2020
Administrators outline position of UAE’s largest healthcare provider which faces multiple investigations
Joint administrators for NMC Health, the holding company of the UAE-based healthcare provider NMC Group, have said the company will probably be dissolved or put into liquidation.
Administrators from the consulting firm Alvarez & Marsal Europe were appointed in April to oversee the hospital operator, after an application from one of its biggest creditors, Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank.
The bank has since begun criminal proceedings against an unspecified number of individuals at the company, which has been delisted from the London Stock Exchange and is now the subject of a UK accounting investigation.
The administrators said it would not be possible to conclude the outcome of the process until all investigations had progressed and the liability position was ascertained.
They also stressed that all of the constituent members of the wider NMC Group, the largest private healthcare provider in the UAE, were continuing as previously.
“This is a standard part of the formal process of administration for NMC Health Plc, the holding company that was listed on the London stock exchange, and does not in any way impact the ongoing trading of the wider group,” said one of the joint administrators Richard Fleming.
The administrators also said that, based on their current estimates, they anticipate the company’s preferential creditors could receive a dividend of approximately £1.
NMC first came under scrutiny late last year when the US-based short-seller Muddy Waters criticised its financial statements.
The company later revised its debt position to $6.6bn, $4bn more than it had previously disclosed.
Link to the original post : https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/may/29/scandal-hit-nmc-health-on-verge-of-liquidation
