NMC founder: Bavaguthu Raghuram Shetty
NMC Health has been slammed by City regulators for concealing more than £3billion of debt.
The former FTSE 100 hospital operator plunged into administration in 2020 after a report by short seller Muddy Waters Capital raised questions over the accuracy of its accounts.
Following a three-year investigation into the scandal, the Financial Conduct Authority yesterday publicly censured NMC for publishing ‘materially inaccurate information about its debt’.
The watchdog found that NMC – founded by Indian entrepreneur Bavaguthu Raghuram Shetty and based in the UAE – ran ‘duel sets of accounting records’ to conceal the true scale of its debts.
In doing so, the company – which entered the FTSE 100 in 2017 – ‘misled investors by understating its debts’ by as much as $4billion (£3.2billion). The FCA decided not to fine NMC, which operated hospitals in the Middle East, because no funds were likely to remain once creditors have been paid.
Steve Smart, joint executive director of enforcement and market oversight at the FCA, said last night: ‘The concealment of NMC’s debt position and subsequent collapse has left creditors including investors out of pocket.’
