Thursday 14 / November / 2024
Muscat: A United Arab Emirates based hospital group is in the “final stages” of taking over two Atlas hospitals for sale in Oman, a senior official from the group said.
“In the coming months, the deal will be closed and an official declaration will be made soon. We are in the final stages now. Some more paperwork has to be completed,” the senior official added.
As the deal is not closed, the group requested anonymity.
The buyer has shelled out around “OMR10m” for the purchase. During the first week of this month, newspaper advertisements were carried for clients to settle claims with the hospital group as a sale decision had been taken.
The two hospitals, one in Ghubra and one in Ruwi, are part of Atlas International for Commercial Enterprises’ health care
divisions.
More than 1,000 patients visit Atlas Hospital at the Ruwi and Ghubrah branches every day, which has some 100 beds. And there are around 300 people on their payroll, including a large number of doctors and nurses.
MM Ramachandran, chairman of the Atlas Group, was sentenced to three years in jail in a financial fraud case in 2015 in UAE. The 74-year-old businessman, popularly known as “Atlas” Ramachandran, had been in police custody since 2015 after cheques issued by his group bounced cheques.
The businessman’s problems began after more than a dozen banks in Dubai complained to police that his group had defaulted on loan repayments.
Ramachandran started his business in Kuwait in 1981, but was forced to relocate to Dubai after trading was suspended during the first Gulf war.
He once ranked among the “100 most powerful Indians in the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council)”.
