NMC Healthcare CEO: Rebranding would not have solved trust issues after $4bn collapse

The answer, according to Chief Executive Officer David Hadley, was no.

“In theory, they should have rebranded it and it would have been a lot easier,” Hadley said. “We should have been called something else and they should have stayed as NMC, and then everybody would have understood they’re two different companies.”

Instead, the UAE-based hospital group kept the NMC name, despite the reputational damage caused by its 2020 collapse, betting that operational reform and transparency would do more to restore trust than a new brand.

“A name change doesn’t fix the business,” Hadley said. “Systems, governance and culture do.”

A brand weighed down by scandal

Founded in 1975, NMC grew into the UAE’s largest private healthcare operator and listed in London in 2012, reaching a peak valuation of more than $10 billion. That growth unravelled in late 2019, when short-seller Muddy Waters alleged the company had overstated assets and understated debt.

NMC later disclosed more than $4 billion in previously hidden borrowings, triggering its entry into administration, delisting from the London Stock Exchange and a series of lawsuits involving banks, auditors and former executives.

The company’s founder, B.R. Shetty, has denied wrongdoing, saying he was misled by others within the organisation. Legal proceedings linked to the former holding company continue in the UK, including a major case against auditor EY.

The operating healthcare business that survived the collapse now sits under a separate structure owned by creditors following a debt-for-equity swap, led by Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank. Hadley, who took over day-to-day leadership in early 2023, stressed that the current business is legally and financially ring-fenced from the old entity.

“If NMC Limited in London wins a court case, that money doesn’t come to us,” he said. “We can’t build hospitals with that. It’s completely separate. There are Chinese walls between us.”

Yet the shared name continues to blur the distinction in the public eye.

“In theory, they should have rebranded it,” Hadley said. “Unfortunately, they carry the same name, apart from the acronyms at the end.”

Why management kept the name

The decision not to rebrand reflected the realities of the UAE market, where patient loyalty is often tied more to doctors, locations and accessibility than to corporate ownership structures.

“People trusted the doctors even when everything else was going on,” Hadley said. “Patients trusted the clinicians. The pot kept boiling.”

NMC remains one of the few private healthcare groups with facilities across all seven emirates, serving both blue-collar and white-collar populations. In Abu Dhabi in particular, the brand still carries decades of recognition.

“People are loyal to NMC, especially in Abu Dhabi,” Hadley said. “Dubai less so, the northern emirates less so, but there is a legacy behind it.”

Management concluded that abandoning the name risked disrupting that patient relationship without addressing the deeper issues exposed by the collapse.

“A rebrand might have made things look cleaner on the surface,” said one senior executive familiar with the discussions. “But it wouldn’t have solved trust with regulators, insurers or staff.”

Rebuilding credibility from the inside

Instead of rebranding, management focused on rebuilding credibility through governance reforms, financial controls and operational restructuring.

When Hadley joined, staff turnover stood at around 30 per cent, suppliers demanded advance payments and insurers were reluctant to negotiate tariffs. “Nobody trusted NMC,” he said. “Regulators didn’t trust us, suppliers didn’t trust us, insurers didn’t trust us, and we struggled to attract talent.”

One of the most visible changes was the rollout of a group-wide enterprise resource planning system, replacing fragmented and largely manual financial reporting. The system went live in September 2024.

“It was the quickest implementation Oracle have done in this region,” Hadley said.

The company also appointed PwC as auditor. “They were very, very rigorous,” Hadley said, noting that more than 200 qualifications on the company’s accounts had since been reduced to a small number.

Governance structures were overhauled, with new committees, a tightened delegation of authority and an ethics reporting line introduced across the group.

“We had to put systems in place so that something like this couldn’t happen again,” Hadley said.

Internally, the changes appear to have stabilised the workforce. Staff turnover has fallen to about 10 per cent, in line with regional healthcare norms, according to management.

“Nobody wants to work for a company you’re not proud of,” Hadley said. “People bought into the changes quite easily.”

Reputation still a work in progress

Despite operational progress, the decision to keep the NMC name continues to draw scrutiny, particularly as the group explores growth and eventual exit options for its bank owners.

“Not a day went by where somebody didn’t ask me who was buying us,” Hadley said, referring to persistent market speculation.

Hw accepts that the name will continue to attract questions, and that trust will need to be earned over time.

“In healthcare, reputation isn’t rebuilt overnight,” Hadley said. “It’s built through consistent delivery.”

Rebranding remains under consideration, but Hadley said it is not straightforward for a healthcare group with deep community roots.

“It is something we’re exploring,” he said. “But it’s not that easy.”

For now, NMC’s leadership appears content to confront its past openly, rather than attempt to erase it with a new identity.

“A name change would have been easier,” Hadley said. “But it wouldn’t have fixed the business.”