Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank has received a binding offer for its 51.54 per cent stake in Alexandria Medical Services Company-New Medical Centre, which values the business at 650 million Egyptian pounds ($41.5m).
The binding offer from TAT Medical Services, a subsidiary of Alexandria Healthcare Investments, is conditional on securing approval from Egypt's Ministry of Healthcare and Population, ADCB said in a statement on Tuesday to the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange, where its shares trade.
"The bank is in the process of entering into a commitment letter with the potential offeror," ADCB said. This is dependent on the company gaining regulatory approval and submitting a mandatory tender offer for the remaining shares at a price that is at least equivalent to the 45.43 pounds per share it has offered to the lender.
ADCB announced it had taken the 51.54 per cent stake in the company from former owner B R Shetty on December 31 last year for 275 million pounds, in lieu of debt owed to it by one of Mr Shetty's companies. In January, it appointed local investment bank CI Capital to sell its stake.
It ran a process through which a number of non-binding offers emerged.
On Tuesday, the lender said that it had received only one other offer, which was disqualified as it did not include a price.
ADCB also said this unnamed bidder or other potential bidders were still entitled to submit mandatory bids to Egypt's Financial Regulatory Authority for Alexandria Medical Services' shares.
In April, ADCB secured a freezing order on Mr Shetty's assets through the Abu Dhabi Global Market, following on from action it had taken in the UK courts in December to freeze assets held by him and other former NMC Health shareholders and directors.
Mr Shetty founded NMC Health in 1975 from a single clinic and grew it into the UAE's biggest healthcare operator, with businesses in 19 countries.
However, after a report by short seller Muddy Waters in 2019 that accused the company of inflating its assets and understating its debt, an independent investigation uncovered more than $4.4bn of previously unreported debt.
After that, the company was placed into administration in April last year.
ADCB is the group's biggest creditor.
Mr Shetty has repeatedly argued that he has been the victim of a fraud perpetrated by former directors at a number of his companies, alleging they forged his signature on loans, cheques, guarantees and other bank documents.
