NMC Health, the London-listed United Arab Emirates healthcare provider, has signed an $825 million loan with a group of banks, the company said in a bourse filing on Monday.

The facility is divided into two tranches - the first, for $350 million, is an amortising loan and will be used to refinance existing debts of NMC and its subsidiaries and for general corporate purposes.

This part is expected to price initially at one-month LIBOR/EIBOR plus 100/70 basis points.

The second tranche of $475 million is for acquisitions, NMC said, and is a delayed draw-down facility priced at a margin over one-month LIBOR/EIBOR, which may fluctuate as per the loan terms.

Both tranches have five-year terms, are priced in dollars and UAE dirhams and should save the parent company up to $3.75 million annually in interest payments, it said.

"The new facility has been structured as two separate tranches to facilitate NMC's ongoing strategy of making phased acquisitions that will be accretive to the Company's underlying business and profitability," NMC added in the statement.

It did not disclose which banks were part of the lending syndicate, stating only that these were international and regional banks.

NMC Health, founded by billionaire Indian entrepreneur BR Shetty, operates general and specialist hospitals, pharmacies and medical centres.

Abu Dhabi-based NMC is one of the largest private sector healthcare providers in the UAE and is expected to see rising demand from a boom in so-called "lifestyle diseases" in the Gulf, as higher incomes and unhealthy diets create health problems. - Reuters