Hospital firm rejects Muddy Waters claims

UNDER-FIRE NMC health has claimed short- seller allegations that wiped £1.7bn off its value are ‘baseless’.

The private hospital firm’s stock plunged by a third on Tuesday after Muddy Waters raised ‘serious doubts’ about its balance sheet, and alleged potential fraud.

NMC branded the claims ‘unfounded, baseless and misleading’ and announced a £150m share buyback programme. Bosses also stood by financial forecasts for 2019 and 2020 and vowed to respond fully to Muddy Waters’ claims at a later point.

They added: ‘ NMC understands its regulatory disclosure obligations and has nothing to add to disclosures already made. The company has a track record of significant, open and increasingly detailed disclosure.’

But the company’s shares fell 1.1pc yesterday.

The attack by Muddy Waters on NMC comes just months after it criticised AIM-listed litigation funder Burford Capital, sending its shares down nearly 50pc.

Abu Dhabi-based NMC provides private health services in the United Arab emirates and listed on the London Stock exchange in 2012.

Its shares hit a high of 4376p each last year but yesterday they were languishing at 1729p following the Muddy Waters attack.

Muddy Waters, led by American

entrepreneur Carson Block, is shorting NMC’s shares, meaning it will profit from any drop in their value.

It accused NMC of ‘materially misleading’ investors at best and committing fraud or ‘theft of company assets’ at worst. Block also claimed the company’s profit margins appeared ‘too good to be true’, suggested it was understating its debts and said the board was not independent enough to hold executives to account.