Ebix, Inc. (NASDAQ: EBIX), a leading international supplier of
On-Demand software and E-commerce services to the insurance,
financial, healthcare and e-learning industries today announced
that its EbixCash World Money Limited subsidiary in India has
entered into an agreement to acquire 100% assets of India based
Essel Forex Limited, for approximately $8 million. Ebix will be
funding the entire transaction in cash, using its internal cash
reserves.
With a national network of 44 branches in 31
cities serviced by 400+ employees, Essel Forex has been one of the
five largest Foreign exchange providers in India with a wide
spectrum of related products including sales of all major
Currencies, travelers’ checks, demand drafts, remittances, money
transfers and prepaid cards primarily for the Corporate clients.
Besides being a foreign exchange business partner to leading banks
such as ICICI, Axis, Indus Ind, Yes and HDFC Bank, Essel Forex has
been associated with Western Union and MoneyGram for inward money
transfers.
Essel Forex will be tightly integrated into the
EbixCash Financial Exchange offering in India and abroad. The
retained Essel Forex executives will become an integral part of the
combined EbixCash remittance and forex leadership team headed by
EbixCash World Money Managing Director TC Guruprasad. Ebix believes
the Essel Forex business can generate operating margins of 40% or
more, once fully integrated. Ebix expects the acquisition to be
immediately accretive to its earnings.
The acquisition of Essel Forex following the
recent announcement of the Weizmann acquisition, further
strengthens EbixCash’s position as the largest Financial Exchange
in India, besides being the undisputed leader in the inward
remittance, outward remittance and foreign exchange markets in
India.
Ebix Chairman, President and CEO Robin Raina
said, “Essel Forex has a rich focus on the corporate clientele with
strong partnerships with many leading banks. Their
geographical, product and client overlap with EbixCash made the
synergies rather compelling. We remain committed to establishing
the Indian sub-continent’s largest Financial exchange and this is
another step in that direction.” Amitabh Chaturvedi, MD & CEO
Essel Finance said, "As part of the next phase of growth of Essel
Finance, we have decided to focus more on the fund based activities
such as NBFC, HFC and Asset Management actives such as Mutual Fund,
Private Equity and accordingly we are exiting the transactional
business. The sale of Essel Forex's business to Ebix Cash
WorldMoney is a part of that strategy."
About Ebix, Inc.
With 50+ offices across 5 continents, Ebix,
Inc., (NASDAQ: EBIX) endeavors to provide On-Demand software and
E-commerce services to the insurance, financial, healthcare and
e-learning industries. In the Insurance sector, the Company’s main
focus is to develop and deploy a wide variety of insurance and
reinsurance exchanges on an on-demand basis, while also, providing
Software-as-a-Service ("SaaS") enterprise solutions in the area of
CRM, front-end & back-end systems, outsourced administrative
and risk compliance, across the world.
With a "Phygital” strategy that combines 260,000
physical distribution outlets in many Southeast Asian Nations
(“ASEAN”) countries, to an Omni-channel online digital platform,
the Company’s EbixCash Financial exchange portfolio encompasses
leadership in areas of domestic & international money
remittance, Forex, travel, pre-paid & gift cards, utility
payments, lending etc., in an emerging country like India. The
Company’s Forex Exchange has an approximate 70% market share of
India’s airport Foreign Exchange business encompassing 25
international airports like Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai and
Kolkata International airports, while conducting over 1 million
transactions per annum. EbixCash, through its travel portal
Via.com, is also one of Southeast Asia’s leading travel exchanges
with over 110,000 distribution outlets and 8,000 corporate clients
processing over 24.5 million transactions every year. For further
details, visit www.ebixcash.com
Through its various SaaS-based software
platforms, Ebix employs thousands of domain-specific technology
professionals to provide products, support and consultancy to
thousands of customers on six continents. For more information,
visit the Company’s website at www.ebix.com
About Essel Forex Ltd
Essel Forex is a part of the Essel Group, the
USD 8 billion conglomerate that has emerged as one of India's most
prominent business houses with a strong foothold in entertainment,
media, packaging, infrastructure, education, precious metals and
technology sectors. Essel Forex through its network encompassing 31
districts and 44 branches in India, has been one of the five
largest Foreign exchange providers in India with a wide spectrum of
related products including sales of all major Currencies,
travelers’ checks, demand drafts, remittances, money transfers and
prepaid cards for the Corporate and Leisure clients. Essel Forex
also offers online sale & purchase of foreign exchange through
its portal www.Esselforex.com
SAFE HARBOR REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING
STATEMENTS
As used herein, the terms “Ebix,” “the Company,”
“we,” “our” and “us” refer to Ebix, Inc., a Delaware corporation,
and its consolidated subsidiaries as a combined entity, except
where it is clear that the terms mean only Ebix, Inc.
The information contained in this Press Release
contains forward-looking statements and information within the
"safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation
Reform Act of 1995, Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, and
Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. This
information includes assumptions made by, and information currently
available to management, including statements regarding future
economic performance and financial condition, liquidity and capital
resources, acceptance of the Company's products by the market, and
management's plans and objectives. In addition, certain statements
included in this and our future filings with the Securities and
Exchange Commission ("SEC"), in press releases, and in oral and
written statements made by us or with our approval, which are not
statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements.
Words such as "may," "could," "should," "would," "believe,"
"expect," "anticipate," "estimate," "intend," "seeks," "plan,"
"project," "continue," "predict," "will," "should," and other words
or expressions of similar meaning are intended by the Company to
identify forward-looking statements, although not all
forward-looking statements contain these identifying words. These
forward-looking statements are found at various places throughout
this report and in the documents incorporated herein by reference.
These statements are based on our current expectations about future
events or results and information that is currently available to
us, involve assumptions, risks, and uncertainties, and speak only
as of the date on which such statements are made.
Our actual results may differ materially from
those expressed or implied in these forward-looking statements.
Factors that may cause such a difference, include, but are not
limited to those discussed in our Annual Report on Form 10-K and
subsequent reports filed with the SEC, as well as: the risk of an
unfavorable outcome of the pending governmental investigations or
shareholder class action lawsuits, reputational harm caused by such
investigations and lawsuits, the willingness of independent
insurance agencies to outsource their computer and other processing
needs to third parties; pricing and other competitive pressures and
the Company's ability to gain or maintain share of sales as a
result of actions by competitors and others; changes in estimates
in critical accounting judgments; changes in or failure to comply
with laws and regulations, including accounting standards, taxation
requirements (including tax rate changes, new tax laws and revised
tax interpretations) in domestic or foreign jurisdictions; exchange
rate fluctuations and other risks associated with investments and
operations in foreign countries (particularly in Australia, UK and
India wherein we have significant operations); equity markets,
including market disruptions and significant interest rate
fluctuations, which may impede our access to, or increase the cost
of, external financing; and international conflict, including
terrorist acts.
Except as expressly required by the federal
securities laws, the Company undertakes no obligation to update any
such factors, or to publicly announce the results of, or changes to
any of the forward-looking statements contained herein to reflect
future events, developments, changed circumstances, or for any
other reason.
Readers should carefully review the disclosures
and the risk factors described in the documents we file from time
to time with the SEC, including future reports on Forms 10-Q and
8-K, and any amendments thereto. You may obtain our SEC filings at
our website, www.ebix.com under the "Investor Information" section,
or over the Internet at the SEC's web site, www.sec.gov.
CONTACT:
Darren Joseph or Gautam Sharma
678 -281-2027 or IR@ebix.com
David Collins or Chris Eddy
Catalyst Global - 212-924-9800 or ebix@catalyst-ir.com
Ebix (NASDAQ:EBIX)
Historical Stock Chart
From Jun 2024 to Jul 2024
Ebix (NASDAQ:EBIX)
Historical Stock Chart
From Jul 2023 to Jul 2024