NMC expects to exit administration, hand over to new owners by end-2021

Third-quarter revenue rises to $915 million from $816 million a year-ago; Adjusted EBITDA on post-IFRS 16 basis reaches $155 million

By Yousef Saba

Published: Mon 1 Nov 2021, 4:14 PM

The UAE hospital operator NMC reported a 12 per cent rise in third-quarter revenue on Monday and said it expected to exit administration and be taken over by its creditors before the end of 2021 under a recently agreed restructuring.

NMC, the largest private healthcare provider in the UAE, ran into trouble last year after the disclosure of more than $4 billion in hidden debt left many UAE and overseas lenders with heavy losses.

Its creditors, owed a total of $7.1 billion, approved a restructuring in September that will give them ownership of 34 NMC group companies and allow those entities to exit administration in Abu Dhabi.

NMC said on Monday revenue from its UAE and Oman business, the group’s core assets, rose to $915 million in the third quarter from $816 million a year before, and were 8% ahead of the business plan.

Adjusted core earnings or EBITDA on a post-IFRS 16 basis reached $155 million in the quarter, which NMC said reflected strong summer trading.

In August, NMC said its companies would begin the process of exiting the administration process in Abu Dhabi, creating a new entity controlled by its creditors with a future value of $2.25 billion.

“With the group receiving overwhelming support and approval from creditors in September 2021, the Joint Administrators have moved to the implementation phase of the deeds of company arrangements (DOCAs), wherein the NMC Group operating companies will leave administration and become owned by the creditors,” NMC said in Monday’s statement.

The company, its creditors and advisers are working to get final regulatory and other approvals to complete NMC’s restructuring and exit administration, which is expected on Dec. 16.

“We are now entering the finishing straight and need one last effort to pull together the final elements to get over the line,” Richard Fleming, managing director of Alvarez & Marsal and joint administrator of NMC, said in the statement. — Reuters