NMC board, management should be held accountable: Al Ghurair

Dubai -- The board and management of troubled NMC Healthcare should be held accountable for the financial irregularities, said Abdulaziz Al Ghurair, chairman of the UAE Banks Federation.
"Banks have dealt with the exposure professionally and they lent to a company which was listed on FTSE-100 index with world-class regulator and the world's largest audit firm doing their audit. Even if they present their balance sheet today, people will still lend to them," Al Ghurair said during a virtual press conference on Sunday.
"This is a world-class fraud and the management and board members should be held accountable. We should have a different track to handle this company it is not a normal track that we can go," he said.
It is estimated that more than 80 local, regional and international banks have exposure to healthcare firm. The UAE bourses had asked all the listed companies in the UAE to announce their exposure. The UAE banks last week announced nearly Dh10 billion exposure to NMC Healthcare.
Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank has the highest exposure to NMC at Dh3 billion. Dubai Islamic Bank and its subsidiary Noor Bank announced Dh2 billion exposure while Emirates NBD and its Shariah-compliant unit Emirates Islamic Bank disclosed Dh747.34 million exposure.
Moreover, Ajman Bank has Dh151.8 million while Al Salam Bank pegged its exposure at Dh161.5 million. All these lenders revealed their exposure for the first time.
Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank said it had extended Dh1.07 billion in financing to NMC Healthcare, and an additional Dh113.67 million exposure to Islamic bonds issued by NMC. National Bank of Fujairah pegged its exposure to NMC at Dh289.1 million, while Sharjah-based United Arab Bank said its exposure was Dh135.3 million.
Founded by billionaire BR Shetty, most of the senior management of the healthcare firm resigned after it more than $4 billion of undisclosed debt. The company has also been dropped out of the FTSE 100 index.
NMC recently revised its debt position to $6.6 billion, well above earlier estimates.
London's High Court last week placed hospital operator NMC Health into administration, on the application of Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank.
"I know leading bank in UAE have already legal guardian of the company so now management cannot hide anything. The new team will manage and discover what happened," said Al Ghurair.
-- waheedabbas@khaleejtimes.com
-waheedabbas@khaleejtimes.com