Ready to accompany Manippady to wakf properties to clear encroachment; he is not responding: Khan

Feb 19: Bavaguthu Raghuram Shetty was once a typical billionaire with a taste for the high-life.

He splurged on a private jet, vintage cars and two entire floors of the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest skyscraper. His website shows him hobnobbing with politicians, Bill Gates and Bollywood royalty.

“The thrill of speed and freedom makes me love cars,” Shetty, 77, told local reporters last year.

Shetty had more than enough money -- at least on paper -- to afford such a lifestyle from companies he helped found, including hospital operator NMC Health Plc and financial services firm Finablr Plc. On Dec. 10, his stakes in the public companies were valued at $2.4 billion, making up the bulk of a fortune spanning education, hospitality and one of the world’s oldest tea companies.

Then, a week later, Carson Block came along.

Block’s investment firm, Muddy Waters, issued a report criticizing NMC’s accounts and disclosing a short position. Since then, Muddy Waters’s scrutiny has snowballed into a troubling scenario for Shetty that sheds light on his complex share arrangements and casts doubts about his net worth. His holdings in Finablr and NMC are worth $885 million, but Shetty’s fortune may now be just a fraction of that, depending on the size of his borrowings.

Filings this month show that Shetty pledged a quarter of his NMC stake against loans with First Abu Dhabi Bank and Zurich-based Falcon Private Bank. Two other shareholders may own half of his reported stake. Another lender -- Al Salam Bank Bahrain -- has already sold some of those shares to enforce security over a loan for Shetty, and NMC said Tuesday that First Abu Dhabi Bank sold another chunk earlier this month.

The situation “seems to have gone beyond some of the issues that Muddy Waters focused on initially,“ said Gavin Launder, a fund manager at Legal & General Investment Management, who owned shares in NMC until October. “The increased scrutiny has unearthed other issues.”

Law firm Herbert Smith Freehills has launched a review of Shetty’s holdings at his request, a spokesperson for the Indian-born businessman said, declining to comment further until the analysis is completed. Shetty resigned Sunday as NMC’s chairman.

In its Dec. 17 report on NMC, Muddy Waters hinted at potential overpayment for assets, inflated cash balances and understated debt. Shares of the United Arab Emirates’ biggest private health-care provider have since plunged 67%, and the firm is now the focus of takeover speculation. The sell-off also spread to Finablr, whose stock has tumbled 64% in that span.

NMC has disputed Muddy Waters’s claims, and the company hired former FBI Director Louis Freeh to conduct an independent review of the short seller’s allegations. Meanwhile, local regulators “are making inquiries with the relevant parties,” a spokesperson for the U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority said.

Shetty is hardly the only ultra-wealthy person to leverage his assets. Elon Musk has used his shares in Tesla Inc. to obtain personal loans, while Oracle Corp. Chairman Larry Ellison has put up millions of the company’s shares to fund a lavish lifestyle that includes trophy properties, America’s Cup teams and the Indian Wells tennis facility in California.

But such deals can also sour, as demonstrated by Shetty’s lenders selling shares his investment firm pledged. He and his advisers are investigating details of the sales as part of their legal review, according to filings.

To complicate matters, Shetty pledged another batch of NMC stock in 2018 as part of a so-called equity collar arrangement with Goldman Sachs Group Inc. that uses options to limit the impact from share moves. Last month, he also pledged most of his stake in Finablr to refinance a loan from the company’s takeover of foreign-exchange firm Travelex for about $1.2 billion.

BRS Ventures Investment, the UAE-based holding company for most of Shetty’s assets, doesn’t report consolidated financials, preventing a complete analysis of his net worth. His other assets include a catering company, a waste-management firm and pharmaceutical business Neopharma, which four months ago was in the early stages of planning for an initial public offering.

Block, 43, earned his reputation as a short seller a decade ago through targeting U.S.-listed Chinese companies that he claimed were frauds. More recently, his San Francisco-based firm focused on British litigation-finance firm Burford Capital Ltd. and Japanese biotech stock PeptiDream Inc. Short sellers seek to benefit from a decline in a company’s share price.

Shetty founded NMC in 1975 after moving to Abu Dhabi from his native India. He created Finablr two years ago to consolidate his financial brands before listing it on the London Stock Exchange in 2019.

Block said he didn’t anticipate NMC’s shareholding drama.

“I wouldn’t have been able to predict that we’d get these bizarre disclosures about unclear share ownership coming out of the company,” he said in a Feb. 13 phone interview. “This has been obviously a more dramatic unraveling than we usually see.”

Bengaluru, Apr 21: Bengaluru Police and administration has issued prohibitory orders in the city, with exemptions to essential and emergency services, to enforce the COVID-19 lockdown.

"In exercise of the powers conferred under Section 144 (1) Code of Criminal Procedure, I, Bhaskar Rao, IPS, Commissioner of Police and Additional District Magistrate, Bengaluru city hereby issue a prohibitory order within the limits of Bengaluru city commissioner on midnight of April 20, 2020, to midnight May 3, 2020," the order issued on Monday said.

Section 144 of the CrPC pertains to the power conferred to a District Magistrate, a sub-divisional Magistrate or any other Executive Magistrate to issue orders in urgent cases of a nuisance of apprehended danger.

"As per the guidelines of the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India on the measures for containment of COVID-19 epidemic, it is imperative to take stringent measures in the jurisdiction of Commissioner of Bengaluru city to prevent the spread of the disease," the order said.

As per the order, the offices of the Government of India, its autonomous and subordinate offices and public corporations shall remain closed with the exception of defence, central armed police force, treasury, public utilities, disaster management, power generation, and post office, etc.

Offices to the state government, their autonomous bodies, corporation, etc shall also remain closed except police, home guard, civil defence, fire and emergency services, electricity, water, sanitation and Mandis operated by Agriculture Produce Market Committee, etc, it added.

It said that municipal bodies, with staff required for essential services, will also remain functional during this period. Other essential and emergency services, like hospitals, shops, etc have also been exempted from the prohibitory orders.

Newsroom, June 5: The union health ministry has announced new rules for shopping malls which have been permitted to open from June 8, except those falling in containment zones.

The guidelines will come into effect from Monday and cinema halls, gaming arcades and children play areas in these establishments will remain closed.

Here is the complete list of standard operating procedures issued by the ministry to be followed in shopping malls to contain the spread of COVID-19.

•   Thermal screening of all visitors mandatory at entry point, along with compulsory hand hygiene. Only asymptomatic visitors will be allowed to enter the shopping mall .

•  It will be mandatory for all visitors as well as workers to wear face masks at all times inside the mall. 

•  Posters and audio-visual media on preventive measures about COVID-19 should be displayed prominently.

•  Visitor entry to shopping malls should be allowed in a staggered manner and adequate manpower be deployed by mall management for ensuring social distancing norms.

•  All employees who are at higher risk like elderly, pregnant women and those having underlying medical conditions should take extra precautions. They should preferably not be exposed to any front-line work requiring direct contact with the public.

•   Proper crowd management in the parking lots and outside the premises – duly following social distancing norms shall be ensured. Preferably, separate entry and exits for visitors, workers and goods/supplies shall be organised.

•   The staff for home deliveries should be screened thermally by the shopping mall authorities prior to allowing home deliveries and required precautions while handling supplies, inventories and goods in the shopping mall must be ensured.

•   Physical distancing of a minimum of 6 feet, when queuing up for entry and inside the shopping mall should be maintained as far as feasible while the number of customers inside the shop should be kept at a minimum, so as to maintain the physical distancing norms.

•   The number of people in the elevators should be restricted and use of escalators with one person on alternate steps should be encouraged.

•   Number of people in the elevators shall be restricted, duly maintaining social distancing norms. Use of escalators with one person on alternate steps may be encouraged.

•   Effective and frequent sanitation within the premises shall be maintained with particular focus on lavatories, drinking and hand washing stations/areas

•   Cleaning and regular disinfection of frequently touched surfaces  to be made mandatory in all malls in common areas as well as inside shops, elevators, escalators etc.

•   In the food-courts, adequate crowd and queue management is to be ensured and not more than 50 per cent of seating capacity should be permitted.

•   Food court staff should wear mask and hand gloves and take other required precautionary measures, the seating arrangement should ensure adequate social distancing between patrons as far as feasible and tables should be sanitized each time a customer leaves.

•   Gaming arcades, children play areas and cinema halls inside shopping malls shall remain closed.

•   Spitting should be strictly prohibited and installation and use of Aarogya Setu App shall be advised to all.

•   The ministry advised persons aged above 65, those having comorbidities, pregnant women and children below the age of 10  to stay at home, except for essential and health purposes.