Two Gulf billionaires, Saeed Mohamed al-Qebaisi and Khalifa Butti al-Muhairi, offloaded £375m of shares in NMC and £55m in Finablr at a big discount

MARKET REPORT: Private hospital operator NMC Health and Travelex owner Finablr dive as investors dump shares

Private hospital operator NMC Health and Travelex owner Finablr suffered a bruising day after major investors sold a bucketload of shares.

Two Gulf billionaires, Saeed Mohamed al-Qebaisi and Khalifa Butti al-Muhairi, offloaded £375million of stock in NMC and £55million in Finablr at an enormous discount.

In a statement after the market closed on Tuesday, they said they were doing it to pay down debt.

It comes at a difficult time for Finablr, which is fighting a cyber-attack at Travelex that was discovered on New Year’s Eve and has left it resorting to fulfilling orders with pen and paper after it took all computers offline.

Two Gulf billionaires, Saeed Mohamed al-Qebaisi and Khalifa Butti al-Muhairi, offloaded £375m of shares in NMC and £55m in Finablr at an enormous discount

Finablr yesterday tried to reassure the market by saying it didn't think there would be a cloth hit which it had contained the spread of the attack.

The hackers, from a gaggle referred to as Revil, are said to require £4.6million in exchange for not releasing personal data from customers.

Finablr, which floated last May at 175p per share, fell 18.5 per cent, or 28.5p, to an rock bottom of 126p.

Finablr was founded by Bavaguthu Raghuram Shetty, the 77-year-old billionaire who also founded United Arab Emirates-based NMC, which is additionally struggling within the wake of an attack last month – from an aggressive hedge fund, Muddy Waters, instead of cyber criminals.

The price the Gulf duo sold their stock at was 20 per cent less than NMC’s share price on Tuesday, prompting the embattled health group to plunge 15.9 per cent, or 237p, to 1257.5p.

Although the pair have sold around a ten per cent stake, their holdings combined were over 30 per cent before the auction, meaning they're still significant shareholders.

Stock Watch - Avacta Group

Biotechnology minnow Avacta Group is to collaborate with Korean drug company Daewoong to develop stem cells which will treat auto-immune and inflammatory diseases.

These therapies will use tiny proteins Avacta has been performing on , which make medicines simpler once they are administered.

Avacta will own 45 per cent of the venture, which can be fully funded by Daewoong.

Shares in AIM-listed Avacta climbed 5.7 per cent, or 1p, to 18.5p.

The FTSE 100 inched up by 0.01 per cent, or 1.08 points, to 7574.93, while the FTSE 250 clocked up a bigger drop of 0.83 per cent, losing 180.76 points, to end at 21651.92.