NMC Health PLC (LON:NMC) cannot seem to get a straight answer out of its three major shareholders over who owns millions of the company's shares.
Founder and major shareholder Bavaguthu Raghuram ‘BR’ Shetty last week was forced to stand down as joint-chairman of the hospital operator, just days after Khalifa Bin Butti resigned as executive vice-chairman, both sparked by the surprising news last week that NMC did not know who controlled its largest shareholdings.
READ: NMC Health founder BR Shetty checks out
Shetty, Khalifa Bin Butti and investment partner Saeed Bin Butti have all provided fresh notifications to the FTSE 100 company of their shareholdings, the company said in a stock market announcement on Friday, but there still remained a considerable proportion of “holdings or purported holdings” that their advisers have been unable to confirm.
That includes the status of 10.9mln shares that Saeed Bin Butti and Khaleefa Bin Butti's advisers said were held by Shetty’s BRS International vehicle for the pair as part of a 2017 agreement, but which, Shetty had said earlier this week had been sold by First Abu Dhabi Bank between 3 and 6 February 2020.
NMC said, therefore, it “continues urgently to seek clarity” from the trio and “encourages” them “to agree the legal position” soon.
NMC’s shares have lost around two thirds of their value since a report was published by short-seller Muddy Waters in mid-December, before the company then stumbled into the shareholding fiasco.
The stock had rallied on Thursday on Bloomberg’s report that Shetty was looking to restructure his debts, having apparently brought in advisers to “revamp” the debt of his BRS Ventures and seek potential investment partners.
But on Friday morning the shares were down again, falling 3% to 830p in early trade.