Tourism Breaking News
Ebix, Inc, international supplier of on-demand software and e-commerce services to the insurance, financial, e-governance and healthcare industries, has announced that one of its Singapore subsidiaries has entered into an agreement to acquire Bengaluru-based Via.com, an omni-channel online travel and assisted e-commerce exchange. The acquisition of Via expands on Ebix’s distribution network to over 224,000 distribution outlets in the South East of Asia, besides offering significant cross selling opportunities for Ebix’s EbixCash Financial Exchange portfolio of products.
Under the terms of the agreement, Via was valued at a total enterprise value of approximately $74.9 million. The closing of the transaction is expected over the next few days. The acquisition is expected to be accretive to Ebix earnings immediately. Via has shown growth at a CAGR of 45 per cent over the last three years with over 110,000 distribution outlets and 8000 corporate clients. Its distribution network encompasses over 85,000 agents in India, 14,700 agents in Indonesia, 9,900 agents in Philippines, 600 agents in Singapore and 350 agents in UAE and Oman.
Ebix intends to consolidate this acquisition into its Financial Exchange – EbixCash while bringing significant synergies and redundancies to the combined operation. The acquisition of the Omni-channel Business, would further strengthen Ebix’s position in the Financial Exchange market in India, as travel transactions can be one of the key areas of any leading financial exchange, with an estimated user base of 600 million in India alone.
Vani Kola, Managing Director, Kalaari Capital said, “Ebix is a logical home for Via, as it complements EbixCash’s financial exchange portfolio perfectly, opening up tremendous cross-selling opportunities on both sides. We are excited about the possibilities this offers for both our customers and employees. Ebix’s financial strength, expertise, focus and commitment to the Fintech sector were key in our decision. We believe that the two sides can leverage each other’s abilities to take a market leadership role in the South East Asian markets.”
Robin Raina, Chairman of the Board, President and CEO, Ebix, said “I believe that the addition of Via’s integrated platform into our rapidly growing EbixCash financial exchange, places us in a very strong position to implement our vision related to Financial Exchanges in the South East of Asia. This allows us tremendous cross-selling opportunities through each other’s distribution networks as our product portfolio is complementary and a perfect fit for each of our distribution outlets and corporate clients. For us taking a strong position in the travel area was very important, since insurance, remittances, phone recharges, prepaid gift cards etc. are the things that complement a consumer’s needs when they engage in travel. We believe that the cross-selling opportunities will further fuel organic growth in our EbixCash Financial Exchange portfolio.” Ebix also announced that it expects the business to generate around $33 million in GAAP revenues in 2018 with approximately 30 percent operating margins.
