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First Abu Dhabi Bank faces being dragged into messy insolvency proceedings after financing 60 properties linked to collapsed mortgage lender Market Financial Solutions.
Sixty property companies owned by Khemanand Hurhangee, an accountant who MFS creditors have alleged is “closely connected” with the failed bridging lender’s owner Paresh Raja, filed notices of their intention to appoint administrators at London’s High Court last week.
A Swiss unit of the United Arab Emirates’ largest bank provided loans to the companies against 60 properties in London in the past year, data from real estate debt intelligence firm CREFi show.
The residential properties — located in desirable neighbourhoods such as Mayfair, Knightsbridge and Kensington — were all originally purchased with mortgages from lending vehicles controlled by Raja, who is now facing a lawsuit from MFS administrators for allegedly misappropriating £1.3bn to fund a “lavish lifestyle”.
In that lawsuit, administrators to MFS alleged that Hurhangee and four other individuals listed as shareholders of companies behind a £950mn property portfolio financed by the collapsed bridging firm actually held their stakes “on behalf of Mr Raja”.
Hurhangee is a director of Magus Chartered Accountants, which helped MFS draw up its financial statements.
The administrators’ lawsuit claimed that it was “not plausible” that Hurhangee and the other individuals were “the true beneficial owners” of the properties, noting his role at “a small high-street accountancy firm” and lack of “any apparent independent source of wealth” consistent with such a large property portfolio.
FAB and Raja declined to comment. Hurhangee’s firm Magus did not respond to a request for comment at the time of publication.
Raja is yet to file a defence against the administrators’ lawsuit but his spokesperson has previously denied their claims and stated that there was “no fraud or dishonesty”.
Lawyers for Raja have also previously stated that several entities controlled by Hurhangee and other individuals allegedly connected to the MFS owner are “not sham companies” but “part of a larger group which are beneficially held for MFS and its associated lenders”.
Dozens of property companies owned by Hurhangee and others allegedly linked to Raja have already collapsed into administration, triggering a sudden rise in the officially reported insolvency rate across England and Wales.
But while many of these properties had outstanding loans from MFS lending vehicles, creditors to the collapsed bridging firm no longer have a direct claim on the 60 companies now planning to appoint administrators.
FAB initially provided loans to 32 of the property companies in July 2025. The Swiss unit of the Abu Dhabi-based bank then extended the remaining 28 mortgages in early February, weeks before creditors appointed administrators over MFS due to alleged “evidence of serious irregularities” in its financial affairs.
At the time FAB provided the second batch of loans, MFS’s bank accounts at Barclays had been frozen for months due to the British bank’s concerns about the mortgage firm.
While FAB directly refinanced MFS loans on 26 of the companies, according to CREFi data, the remaining properties had either earlier been refinanced by other lenders or had no outstanding mortgages registered at the UK’s Companies House registry.
FAB has more than $400bn in assets and more than half of its shares are owned by sovereign wealth fund Mubadala and members of Abu Dhabi’s ruling family. The bank’s chair is Abu Dhabi royal Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed al-Nahyan, a brother of UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan and the UAE’s national security adviser.
FAB opened a new London branch in Mayfair last year.