JOHNS CREEK, Ga., Jan. 04, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- 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
