Middle East Equity

Finablr’s shares have been suspended and the company has warned that it may go out of business just ten months after ts IPO.

Finablr, the parent company of Travelex, has issued a warning that it may struggle to access financing due to the impact of the Covid-19 coronavirus and its association with NMC Health, causing its share price to slump to a record low.

NMC Health, the scandal-hit UAE-based hospitals operator, has $2.7bn in undisclosed debt, taking its total gross debt to around $5bn, and an investigation into its finances has found evidence of serious fraud.

Shares in NMC Health, the London-listed United Arab Emirates hospitals operator, have been suspended. Its convertible bonds have fallen to around 50 cents on the dollar, after the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) placed it under investigation and the company fired its chief executive.

US buyout group KKR has said it will not make a bid for the beleaguered UAE healthcare company NMC Health, dampening investor hopes of a rescue buyout and sending its shares and convertible bonds lower.

Shares in NMC Health, the beleaguered UAE healthcare company, surged as much as 18% on Monday morning after it said it had received takeover approaches from buyout firms KKR and GK Investment.

Dr Suliaman Al Habib Medical Group, one of the largest private health companies in Saudi Arabia, has announced it is seeking to list on the Tadawul stock exchange. It is the first company to attempt an IPO there since the record listing of Saudi Aramco last December.

Dubai’s Emirates NBD Bank has sold a small stake in NMC Health, the beleaguered UAE private healthcare company, to close out a loan owed by Infinite Investment, a vehicle for two of the company’s controlling shareholders.

Zero-E the company that holds the wind, solar and thermal assets of Actividades de Construcción y Servicios has found a private buyer for its Spanish renewables assets, making an IPO unlikely.

Capital Group, one of the largest asset managers in the US, bought 13.45m shares in NMC Health on January 8, according to a disclosure on the London Stock Exchange. They were worth about £160m. That was the day after a £375m block trade by Saeed Al Qebaisi and Khaleefa Al Muhairi, two of the three controlling shareholders in the UAE health company, which faced criticism from short-seller Muddy Waters of its balance sheet and financial statements in December.

Two major insiders offloaded £375m of stock in NMC Health, the troubled UAE-based private healthcare company to cover debts on Tuesday. The share sale, which was priced at a 19.7% discount to close, came weeks after a short selling attack on NMC Health by US activist hedge fund Muddy Waters, which caused the company to lose more than half of its market value.

Equity investors were hopeful that the tension between the US and Iran will lessen after the latter responded to the former's assassination of its military commander Qasem Soleimani with a limited tactical strike against US bases in the Middle East.