One “Shetty” Week: Family Behind NMC Health Loses $820 Million After Muddy Waters Short

You could say its been one Shetty week for the family behind hospital operator NMC Health and financial services firm Finablr Plc. 

The Shetty family has seen its family fortune fall about $820 million since short seller Carson Block came out on Tuesday of this week critical of NMC’s accounts and publicly stating he was short the company’s stock, according to Bloomberg. 

Good morning London! MW is short NMC Health $NMC.LN We have serious doubts about the company’s financial statements, including its asset values, cash balance, reported profits, and reported debt levels. https://t.co/9zyc6teLda

— MuddyWatersResearch (@muddywatersre) December 17, 2019

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Shares plunged 32% on Tuesday in response, despite the company calling Block’s thesis “principally unfounded”. On Thursday, the company’s stock continued to plunge after announcing a buyback program. They plunged 21% further on Friday following an FT report that the company held talks to raise off balance sheet debt in order to fund growth.

NMC claimed those allegations were “based on false information.”

77 year old Bavaguthu Raghuram Shetty founded NMC in 1975 after moving to Abu Dhabi from India. The company is now the largest healthcare provider in the UAE. 

Source: Bloomberg

Shares of Finablr are also down 19% since Block’s attack on NMC. Shetty founded Finablr in 2018 to consolidate his finance brands. He listed the company on the London Stock Exchange this year and his family’s stake in Finablr is worth about $1 billion. 

Muddy Waters did not disclose the size of their short position, but with NMC stock down about 40% since releasing his report, it’s safe to say that Block’s week likely hasn’t been as Shetty.