Babylon Ltd. (TASE:BBYL) notified the TASE today that, on Friday, it filed a draft prospectus with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for a possible offering of securities on Wall Street.
In August, DS Brokerage research department director Eran Jacoby initiated coverage of the translation software developer, controlled by Noam Lanir, with a "Buy" recommendation and target price of NIS 44. He predicts that Babylon will almost triple its revenue in 2012, compared with 2011, to NIS 650 million, and pass the NIS 1 billion revenue threshold in 2013. He also predicts that the company's net profit will rise to NIS 92 million in 2012 and NIS 135 million in 2013.
Union Bank analyst Benny Dekel gives Babylon a "Buy" recommendation with a target price of NIS 7,50.
Babylon's revenue rose 215% to NIS 159.2 million for the second quarter from NIS 50.6 million for the corresponding quarter of 2011, and its net profit rose nine-fold to NIS 22.9 million from NIS 2.4 million.
In July, Babylon announced that it was considering an offering on Wall Street. Although the company added the customary caveat that there is no assurance than an offering will be held, sources inform ''Globes'' that RBC Capital Markets Inc. and Citibank Capital Markets Inc. are among the investment banks that have approached Babylon about an offering, which the sources estimate would be held at a company value of between NIS 800 million and NIS 1.2 billion.
Babylon's share price rose 8.2% by midday today to NIS 32.23, giving a market cap of NIS 1.5 million.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on September 9, 2012
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2012