NMC founder, BR Shetty to pay Dh168.7m: Dubai court decrees

mangaloretoday.com/khaleejtimes

Dubai, October 10, 2025: Once hailed as one of the UAE’s most successful Indian entrepreneurs, B.R. Shetty, founder of the collapsed NMC Healthcare group, has been ordered by the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) Courts to pay $45.99 million (Dh168.7 million) to the State Bank of India (DIFC Branch) after finding that he lied under oath about signing a personal guarantee for a $50 million (Dh183.5 million) loan.

In a judgment issued on October 8 and posted on DIFC Court’s website, Justice Andrew Moran described Shetty’s testimony as “an incredible parade of lies” and said his evidence during the September 29 hearing was “incoherent and nonsensical.” The court concluded there was “overwhelming witness and documentary evidence” proving that Shetty had indeed signed the guarantee in December 2018, making him personally liable for the debt.

The order requires Shetty to pay $45,997,554.59 (Dh168.8 million), including interest up to the date of the ruling, with post-judgment interest at nine per cent per year, accruing at roughly $11,341 (Dh41,645) per day until full payment.

The dispute revolved around whether Shetty personally guaranteed a $50 million (Dh183.5 million) loan granted by the State Bank of India to NMC Healthcare in December 2018. Shetty denied ever meeting the bank’s CEO or signing any document, claiming his signature had been forged. But the court was shown evidence that contradicted him,  including photographs, meeting notes, and even an email from Shetty’s own account.

The bank’s then-CEO, Anantha Shenoy, testified that he travelled to NMC’s Abu Dhabi offices on December 25, 2018, where Shetty signed the guarantee in his presence. He also produced photographs taken weeks later at NMC’s offices, showing Shetty with senior bank officials, apparently thanking them for the facility. When confronted with the pictures, Shetty said the officials must have “just come and stood there” while he posed for photos with the chairman.

Bizarre claims

The court dismissed his explanations, calling them “false and discreditable manoeuvring designed to evade liability.” It also rejected what the judge described as Shetty’s “bizarre” claim that NMC employees once held a competition to see who could best copy his signature, with a “prize for the winner.”

Handwriting experts further confirmed that the signatures on the guarantee, sanction letter, and related documents matched Shetty’s handwriting. The judge said the evidence against him was “overwhelming.”

The verdict marks another setback for the 83-year-old Indian billionaire, who once symbolised the success of the UAE’s Indian business community. Shetty founded NMC Healthcare in the mid-1970s, building it into the country’s largest private healthcare provider, alongside other ventures such as UAE Exchange and Finablr.

At its peak, NMC was listed on the London Stock Exchange and valued at more than $10 billion (Dh36.7 billion). But in 2020, it collapsed spectacularly after hidden debts of over $4 billion (Dh14.68 billion) were uncovered, triggering investigations in multiple countries.

In February 2020, Shetty resigned as joint non-executive chairman of NMC. The company was later placed under administration in Abu Dhabi, while Shetty left the UAE and returned to India, citing health issues.


Courtesy: https://www.khaleejtimes.com