NMC Health calls short seller attack ‘baseless’

Bloomberg

NMC Health Plc said claims made by Carson Block’s Muddy Waters Capital LLC “appear principally unfounded,” after a report by the short seller sent shares tumbling the most on record.
“NMC will review the assertions, insinuations and accusations made in the report, which appear principally unfounded, baseless and misleading, containing many errors of fact, and will respond in detail in due course,” the company said in a statement Wednesday. The stock gained 9.8% at the open.
It also reaffirmed 2019 and 2020 forecasts provided in October and, in a separate statement, said it will start a share buyback program of as much as $200 million on Wednesday.
The shares lost about a third of their value on Tuesday after Muddy Waters said that the hospital operator’s financial statements hint at potential overpayment for assets, inflated cash balances and understated debt. The company said in Wednesday’s statement that it “has a track record of significant, open and increasingly detailed disclosure to the market, as monitored and reviewed by its entirely independent disclosure committee.”
Before the report, NMC’s shares had gained more than twelve-fold since listing in 2012.