NMC Healthcare Ltd said it won approval from creditors for the restructuring process that allows the bulk of the hospital operator’s business to exit administration.
NMC secured 95% of the eligible creditor vote for the deeds of company arrangement proposals, according to a statement from the largest private medical services provider in the United Arab Emirates.
A local Abu Dhabi court still needs to confirm the vote, NMC said. It could then take as many as five months to draw a line under the process and enable 34 NMC operating entities to leave administration, it said.
NMC Healthcare will remain in administration to pursue claims which, if successful, will be distributed to certain creditors. NMC’s founder recently accused the company’s audit firm Ernst & Young LLP of concealing the fraud to investors.
NMC Health Plc, most of whose assets and companies are being transferred to the new group, was once listed on the London Stock Exchange. It collapsed in 2019 after revealing that it had more than $4bn of undisclosed borrowings. NMC was placed into administration almost a year ago to prevent the company from collapsing.
NMC’s restructuring was the first such case to be handled by the court in Abu Dhabi Global Market, the financial centre of the UAE capital.
The company said ADGM’s insolvency regulation “proved robust in taking a complex business, with an overhang of a massive fraud, through a transparent and fair process to fix capital structure and ensure long-term viability, while simultaneously restoring the stability of the business.”
NMC’s chief executive officer, Michael Davis, said the vote marked “a new dawn” for the group, which employs 11,500 people.
“History is not finished with NMC Healthcare, and we look forward our next stage of growth working with our new owners and our continued journey toward NMC 2.0,” he said.
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