Babylon postpones Wall Street public offering

The online translation company had filed to raise $115 million but postponed the offering due to "market conditions," sources believe.

Online translation company Babylon Ltd. (TASE:BBYL) has decided to postpone its planned Wall Street offering, the company reported to the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange this evening. Sources in Israel's capital market believe that Babylon's road show, prior to the public offering, has now been put off until January 2013 because of "market conditions."

At the start of November, Babylon, which is managed by CEO Alon Carmeli, filed a prospectus with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to raise up to $115 million. The company did not disclose the price range for the offering.

In its statement to the TASE today, Babylon stressed that the prospectus it had filed has yet to come into effect and is not yet binding, and is not an offering to the public. Babylon also emphasized that the amount and timing of the offering have yet to be set and there is no certainty it will even take place.

Citgroup and Jefferies & Company are the joint book-running managers, RBC Capital Markets is the lead manager, and Needham & Company, Oppenheimer & Co., and William Blair & Company are the co-managers.

Babylon posted $121.3 million revenue in January-September 2012, compared with $39.9 million in the first nine months of 2011. Google is responsible for 89% of Babylon's revenue. Net profit jumped 543% to $17 million.

In the prospectus, Babylon discloses executive pay. The salary cost of CEO Alon Carmeli was $698,000 in 2011, the aggregate salary cost of the five highest-paid executives (including Carmeli) was $1.8 million.

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on November 25, 2012

© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2012

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