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B.R. Shetty, founder and former chairman of NMC Health, has said new chairman Faisal Belhoul is a seasoned investor in the health and education sector and will lead the group from the front. Shetty said NMC would be in safer and able hands under the leadership of Belhoul.
“I have no doubt that the future of NMC Health, which I had founded decades ago, will be safer and brighter in the hands of such a successful and pragmatic entrepreneur like Faisal, who has an excellent track record of accomplishments,” Shetty said.
Shetty said he is confident that NMC Health, the UAE’s pioneering private-sector healthcare initiative and a homegrown global brand, will be able to tide over the current crisis with Belhoul at its helm.
“I have also advised some of the senior staff members of NMC, who had been in touch with me, to stay put and extend their full support to the new chairman to ensure that NMC tide over the critical phase and retain its status as a regional healthcare icon,” Shetty said.
Earlier, the chairman and director of leading hospital operator NMC Health, HJ Mark Tompkins, has stepped down, days after the embattled firm disclosed that its debt position had piled up to $6.6 billion from the previously estimated $5 billion.
NMC Health said Tompkins has been replaced Faisal Belhoul, who is currently serving as the managing director of Ithmar Capital Partners, which owns a 9 per cent stake in the healthcare provider. The company has been bedeviled by mounting debts amid an unfolding saga of financial irregularities that had forced its founder and co-chairman BR Shetty and his team, including former CEO Prashant Manghat, to step down over the past few weeks.
Tompkins, who had been chairman since before NMC had gone public in 2012, has suffered from ill health over the past few weeks. This had prevented his participation in board activities. He has stepped down with immediate effect, NMC said.
“This decision was taken as a result of the difficult period which NMC has faced and a desire of the remaining board members to focus on the challenges ahead for the company,” NMC said.
“The board has decided that the appointment of an executive chairman based in the UAE is appropriate given the challenging period the company is facing at the current time as it reviews previous financial irregularities; discusses its debt position with its lenders,” the company said. “‘Faisal’s experience and local contacts will be of great value to the company in its present circumstances,” said Michael Davis, interim CEO of NMC.
Belhoul is also a founder of Amanat Holdings, one of the largest investment companies in integrated healthcare and education. Apart from those roles, he also served in various other positions, including as a board member of Al Noor, the FTSE 250 healthcare company, whose listing Belhoul led in London in 2013.
NMC Health’s fortunes faced a sudden reversal as it got embroiled in a series of financial scandals ever since Muddy Waters Research accused that the healthcare provider had inflated cash balances, overpaid for its assets and understated its debt. Its turmoil deepened amid disclosures of mammoth debt currently estimated to be around $6.6 billion, higher than the $5 billion revealed earlier this month and far higher than the $2.1 billion declared in its accounts.
Recently, NMC appointed a new chief restructuring officer to sort out its finances. NMC Health said in a statement to the London Stock Exchange, where its shares trade, that the company owes money through 75 debt facilities to over 80 financial institutions,. This includes a $360 million convertible bond and $400 million sukuk.
“NMC is continuing to work with its advisers to understand the exact nature and quantum of the undisclosed facilities, including the circumstances in which they were obtained,” it said.
