Middle East Equity

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.

Many investors made their first trades of the new year on Monday selling risk positions. That has thrown into doubt issuers' plans to bring new business to the primary market.

A weekend of hostile rhetoric between Iran and the US has caused equity capital markets bankers to consider delaying new deals from the Middle East despite a healthy issuance pipeline, over fears that the two countries are gearing up for war.

Equity-linked bond investors were left hurting again this week after bonds and shares in NMC Healthcare, the London-listed Emirati private healthcare business, were hit by accusations of fraud by short seller Muddy Waters. This is another painful episode for the convertible bond market after its troubles with Wirecard earlier in 2019, and an earlier scandal at Steinhoff International.

Shares in NMC Health, the London-listed Emirati private healthcare business, plunged more than 20% on Tuesday morning after US activist short seller Muddy Waters said it had grave concerns about the company’s balance sheet and financial statements, hitting the firm's convertible bonds.

Sources close to Saudi Aramco breathed a sigh of relief on Thursday, when trading in its shares accelerated, after a very slow and stuttering start the previous day. The action propelled the Saudi oil champion's stock higher, but more importantly for international investors, the more liquid flow should make it easier for them to buy the stock when it is added to MSCI's emerging markets index next week.