UAE Hospital Group NMC Begins Process to Exit Administration

FILE PHOTO: General view of NMC specialty hospital in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, February 11, 2020.
REUTERS/SATISH KUMAR
FILE PHOTO: General view of NMC specialty hospital in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, February 11, 2020. REUTERS/SATISH KUMAR
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UAE Hospital Group NMC Begins Process to Exit Administration

FILE PHOTO: General view of NMC specialty hospital in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, February 11, 2020.
REUTERS/SATISH KUMAR
FILE PHOTO: General view of NMC specialty hospital in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, February 11, 2020. REUTERS/SATISH KUMAR

UAE hospital operator NMC said on Wednesday its companies will 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.

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, Reuters reported.

Its UAE operating businesses were placed into administration in the courts of Abu Dhabi's international financial centre ADGM. Claims from creditors rose to $7.1 billion with the majority of $6.7 billion relating to financial creditor claims, the company said in a presentation on Wednesday.

A new NMC Group will be established, while all material entities and assets will be transferred to a new operating entity, it said in a separate presentation.

The operating entity will be owned by a holding company with a future expected value of $2.25 billion, it said.

Creditors will each receive a portion of the $2.25 billion debt claim equal to the expected future value of New NMC Group and will get interest payments for these facilities, it said.

"We have brought the company back from the brink of near total collapse to secure NMC's future and to ensure that our ability to provide world-class patient care is preserved – through thick and thin," Chief Executive Michael Davis said in a statement.

"The first half of 2021 is like daylight compared to the dark nights of the first half of 2020."

NMC said after overwhelming support from creditors, the joint administrators Alvarez & Marsal have proposed deeds of company arrangement (DOCAs), which will allow 34 companies of the NMC group to exit administration.

There will be a creditors' meeting to vote on the proposed DOCAs on Sept 1. Once confirmed by the ADGM courts, it is anticipated it will take three to five months to complete the transfer of shares and assets, it said.



EU Needs Rare Earths Strategic Reserves against China Threat

File photo: A mining machine is seen at the Bayan Obo mine containing rare earth minerals, in Inner Mongolia, China July 16, 2011. Picture taken July 16, 2011. (Reuters)
File photo: A mining machine is seen at the Bayan Obo mine containing rare earth minerals, in Inner Mongolia, China July 16, 2011. Picture taken July 16, 2011. (Reuters)
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EU Needs Rare Earths Strategic Reserves against China Threat

File photo: A mining machine is seen at the Bayan Obo mine containing rare earth minerals, in Inner Mongolia, China July 16, 2011. Picture taken July 16, 2011. (Reuters)
File photo: A mining machine is seen at the Bayan Obo mine containing rare earth minerals, in Inner Mongolia, China July 16, 2011. Picture taken July 16, 2011. (Reuters)

European Union countries should create joint reserves of rare earths to prevent supply chain disruptions and economic blackmail from China, the EU's Commissioner for Industrial Strategy, Stephane Sejourne, told the Handelsblatt newspaper.

Sejourne also said he would launch further tenders this year to promote alternative raw material sources, the German newspaper said.

"All European countries today have strategic reserves for oil and gas. We should do the same for strategic raw materials," Sejourne was quoted as saying on Monday.

The European Union in June announced 13 new raw material projects outside the bloc to increase its supplies of metals and minerals essential to its competitiveness in the energy transition as well as defense and aerospace.

The announcement followed China's decision in April to impose export curbs on rare earth magnets until new licenses are obtained, leaving diplomats, carmakers and other companies from Europe and elsewhere scrambling to secure meetings with Beijing officials and avert factory shutdowns.

Sejourne also warned Beijing that the EU has the tools to defend itself in a potential trade war. "Europe must finally use the same weapons as its competitors," he said.

China in June said it attached great importance to the EU's concerns and would look into speeding up the approval process to ship rare earth exports to the EU.