New Finablr Owners Hire Moelis and Pledge to Reopen UAE Exchange

(Bloomberg) --

The consortium that bought Finablr Plc has hired U.S. investment bank Moelis & Co. to restructure the scandal-plagued payments firm, calling it a step toward re-opening its foreign-exchange branches in the United Arab Emirates.

Prism Group AG and Abu Dhabi’s Royal Strategic Partners, which acquired Finablr for $1 in December last year, said Moelis will advise on the “restructuring and transformation” of Finablr and its subsidiaries, as well as help putting together a capital structure proposal that will be presented to the group’s creditors in the coming weeks.

Scandal-Hit Finablr Sold for $1 to Israeli-UAE Consortium

Moelis’s appointment will “lead to the swift re-opening of UAE Exchange, the Abu Dhabi-based remittance house, whose branches have been closed since March 2020,” according to a statement Sunday from Prism and Royal Strategic Partners.

Finablr, the London-listed firm which once had a market value of 1.5 billion pounds ($2 billion) revealed in April about $1 billion of debt hidden from its board that may have been used for unauthorized purposes, compounding a scandal that pushed its sister firm NMC Health Plc into administration.

Its foreign-exchange businesses and payment-technology operations include one of the largest foreign currency firms in the Persian Gulf, UAE Exchange. When Finablr faced potential insolvency, the UAE central bank stepped in and oversaw the operations of UAE Exchange, which serves a key role in helping foreign workers send money home.

The Finablr takeover was also touted as one of the first significant commercial transactions between UAE and Israeli companies after the countries signed a normalization accord last year.

Finablr Looks to Turn Page on Scandal With Takeover by Prism