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Gulf focused hospital owner NMC Health revised its debt position to $6.6bn, from an earlier estimate of $5.0bn, and said it was investigating the nature and size of some undisclosed facilities.
The revision included $0.3bn related to facilities known to the board, $0.8bn of newly identified facilities undisclosed as at June 2019 and unapproved by the board and another $0.4bn of unidentified debt.
'The board believes that some of proceeds may have been utilised for non-group purposes and work is commencing on a project to trace such proceeds with a view to considering what actions may be available to the group to recover such monies,' the company said.
NMC Health also said that it had been informed of the presence of cheques written by NMC entities that may have been used as security for financing arrangements for the benefit of third parties.
'A preliminary view is that the amount of these cheques totals approximately $50m,' it said.
'The existence of these cheques has only recently been brought to the attention of the board and urgent investigations are ongoing.'
NMC Health shares have been under pressure since it became the subject of a critical report by short seller Muddy Waters that questioned the strength of its balance sheet.
The company was further rocked by revelations that the shareholdings of key stakeholders were unclear, leading to the resignation of board members including its former chairman.
On Tuesday, the company said it had appointed former PwC partner Matthew J. Wilde as its chief restructuring officer.