Ebix Takes Leadership Position in Digital Payments Market in India via Acquisition of 80% Stake in Fast-Growing ItzCash

JOHNS CREEK, GA--(Marketwired - May 24, 2017) - Ebix, Inc. (NASDAQ: EBIX), a leading international supplier of On-Demand software and E-commerce services to the insurance, financial, e-governance and healthcare industries, today announced that it has entered into a joint venture with India-based Essel Group, while acquiring an 80% stake in ItzCash, India's leading payment solutions Exchange. ItzCash is recognized as a leader in the prepaid cards and bill payments space in India, besides being the only profitable payments solutions provider out of all its peers, while having grown at a CAGR of 35% over the last 3 years. The acquisition is expected to be accretive to Ebix earnings within the next 6 to 9 months.

Under the terms of the agreement, ItzCash was valued at a total enterprise value of approximately $150 million. Accordingly, Ebix acquired an 80 percent stake in ItzCash for $120 million including upfront cash of $76 million and a contingent earn out of up to $44 million payable over a period of 3 years from closing. The closing date of the transaction was May 23, 2017. The Company funded the transaction using internal cash reserves from its Indian and Singapore subsidiaries.

A leading driving force in the digitization of cash across India, ItzCash is a Financial Exchange for payment solutions that connects 75+ million consumers and 1,500+ corporate partners on its integrated payments solutions superhighway. With an Omni-channel strategy that encompasses a distribution network of 75,000+ physical retail outlets, the Company today is recognized as a leader in the prepaid cards and bill payments space. ItzCash processes approximately 600,000 transactions per day and approximately $2 Billion in annual payment volume, with an industry leading transaction success rate of 99%.

After a detailed due diligence and transaction support led by EY, Ebix decided to retain the entire management team led by the Managing Director of ItzCash Naveen Surya. With Ravi Singh as Chief Business Officer, Dayton Creado as CTO, and Bhavik Vasa as Chief Growth Officer leading the Company's growth initiatives across multiple channels, the Ebix - Essel group joint venture intends to empower this highly experienced trio of seasoned senior executives, under the leadership of Naveen, to power ItzCash to become India's largest Financial Exchange, with integrated offerings for insurance, healthcare and telemedicine. Naveen Surya also serves as the Chairperson for the Payment Council of India, an industry association for non-bank payment entities.