BENGALURU/UDUPI: Pharma entrepreneur and billionaire, BR Shetty is facing a slew of charges in UK and UAE after two of his top-notch companies, NMC Health and Finablr have been found involved in financial misgivings and flouting corporate governance rules. A California based research firm, Muddy Waters has disclosed in its report that NMC Health which has an exposure to at least a dozen banks in UAE may have understated its debt by at least $4.5 billion and dressed up its accounts to show large margins as well as invested in large assets that were too high to be plausible. Shetty’s financial firm, Finablr has found that cheques worth $100 million were issued without company’s board knowledge. On April 26, the Central Bank of the UAE instructed all the financial institutions to freeze all the bank accounts of Udupi based billionaire after a UK Court placed the NMC into administration (insolvency) based on an application of an Abu Dhabi based Bank to which Shetty’s company owes nearly $981 million. Following the allegations, the stocks of NMC and Finablr stopped trading on London Stock Exchange (LSE).
Udupi based entrepreneur has resigned from his position as the Chairman of NMC and many of the senior management employees have been sacked/ or quit. Shetty who unlike many of his peers from the coastal region of Karnataka set up his own health business two and a half decades ago in Abu Dhabi, rewrote the rules racing on to become the Chairman of the biggest private healthcare provider in UAE, NMC with his net worth at $4.2 billion in 2018 according to Forbes magazine. NMC Health was the only Abu Dhabi based company listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE).
His plans were not restricted to healthcare alone and soon he smelled an opportunity in finance sector tapping the immigrants market in the gulf by setting up UAE Exchange for expatriates to send money back home. In 2003, Udupi based Shetty launched his own pharma manufacturing enterprise, Neopharma in Abu Dhabi working with brands like Pfizer, Merck etc.
Meanwhile, according to sources close to Shetty who is in Mangaluru without being able to fly back to UAE due to flight restrictions is in no mood of giving up. He is said to be preparing to bounce back by contesting the case in the court in the desert nation.
Kushal Shetty, General Manager, BRS Health and Research Institute Pvt Ltd told TNIE that B R Shetty’s move of believing anybody without suspecting their intent would have hurt him and his business, but the fact that he holds no responsibility in the administration of NMC Health from past four years after the CEO was appointed is a pointer that B R Shetty has made no financial irregularities. "He used to only attend the board meeting in his capacity as a member of the board," he said.
B R Shetty who came to see his ailing brother, who has since passed away, is now staying at his brother’s house in Mangaluru and studying about the legal fight to be fought to bounce back.
The life journey of Dr Shetty who went on to become the Indian Billionaire will leave anyone awestruck. Born in the year 1942 in Kaup, Udupi, the initial life of B R Shetty was full of challenges. He contested Udupi town municipal election in the year 1968 from Bharathiya Jana Sangh and won for two consecutive terms. It was alleged that Shetty had given Hublot watch to then chief minister Siddaramaiah as a bribe which both had denied. In a few years, he had also announced that he will make the most expensive film in Bollywood and develop Jog Falls both of which is yet to see the light of the day.
Dr B R Shetty kept special love for his native Udupi district and with that philanthropic vision, the new 200 bedded Government of Karnataka Koosamma Shambhu Shetty Memorial Haji Abdullah Mother and Child Hospital, Udupi was opened at the cost of Rs 120 crore under PPP model in the year 2018.