The digital health company Babylon Health is set to withdraw from the New York Stock Exchange and become a private company again as its leading creditor AlbaCore Capital LLP, takes over after months of financial turmoil.
Once the poster company for digital health in the UK and championed by Tory politicians, such as Matt Hancock, as a model for the way the NHS can integrate digital tech, AI and private enterprises, Babylon Health is now having to reassure patients in the UK that the deal will not adversely affect its NHS services. The company argues the financing would offer certainty after months without long-term funding.
The move by AlbaCore is billed as “a restructuring and recapitalisation” of the business, which will leave shareholders wiped out according to the FT. AlbaCore Capital LLP is based in London, but at the end of March it was reported that it is being acquired by the Japanese banking group Mitsubishi UFJ.
Shareholder approval of the deal is not needed nor will they receive any payments under the debt agreements Babylon already has with AlbaCore; the company has already loaned Babylon $300 million and will now extend $34.5 million in new funding.
Full story in The Lowdown, 22 May 2023
