Israel's Prism may retain Unimoni employees once deal goes through

KOCHI: Employees of Finablr, a remittance firm in the midst of an accounting scandal, have enough reasons to breathe easy as Israel's Prism Advance Solutions, which has agreed to take over the UAE-based group, is likely to retain the employees too.

Finablr has about 7,000 employees globally and over 500 in Kerala, who mostly work at its back-end unit in Kochi under the Unimoni brand. A large section of the employees has not been paid salaries for the past several months, after the shares of Finablr -- founded by entrepreneur B R Shetty -- were suspended from
trading on the London stock exchange (LSE) since March. Reports said the company had an undisclosed debt of $1.3 billion.

In a regulatory filing on LSE last Friday, Finablr said: "The company's discussions with Prism are continuing as the parties work together to determine an optimum structure for the transaction, taking into account all applicable regulation."
 
Rob Miller, group human resources and restructuring implementation director, Finablr, told TNIE that it will be "great news to employees" if the deal goes through. "Prism will potentially acquire Finablr Ltd, which is the ultimate holding company of our India operations (and all subsidiary companies) which by default includes our employees in India and elsewhere. The intention of the management in putting this deal to the board is to continue trading," he said in an e-mail response.

Responding to salaries, Miller said this was in the hands of the Central Bank of UAE. "Outside of the UAE, some entities in India has the ability to pay employees, while other entities are only able to meet partial payroll obligations," he said.

Speaking over the phone, Miller said some businesses including its gold loan unit are profit-making. Some employees at Unimoni's back-end unit in Kochi said the company has asked them to look out for opportunities.

"Some employees left the company after they got offers from banks and other companies. Since the company hasn't paid the salaries for 4-5 months, those who are getting good offers are moving out," said an insider, adding that over 80 employees may have left the company.

Miller said it was only reasonable for the company to allow employees who are moving out to facilitate the exit as they have families to take care of.

The Shetty-founded NMC Healthcare and Finablr reportedly owe more than $6.6 billion to banks based in the GCC and internationally. Miller said: "As the potential deal is in respect of the equity of Finablr Ltd., the intention is for the potential investor to assume the liabilities. Again, we are still in the early stages."