Ebix Reaffirms Strong Business Outlook and Announces Formation of Strategic Investment Committee of Independent Board Members

Rhea-AI Summary

Ebix, Inc. (NASDAQ: EBIX) recently provided an update on its business outlook, highlighting strong interest from international investors for substantial investments. The company is exploring a minority investment in its Indian subsidiary, EbixCash, and engaging investment bankers for refinancing existing loans. EbixCash's IPO is on track, with prior approvals from major stock exchanges in India. The company reaffirmed its financial discipline, reporting $229 million in cumulative cash payments over the last eight quarters. Despite the pandemic's impact, positive trends in travel and foreign exchange businesses were noted.

Positive

• Received substantial investment interest from multiple international players.
• Engaging reputed investment bankers to refinance existing loan facilities.
• Positive outlook for EbixCash IPO with approvals from major stock exchanges.
• Strong cash discipline with $229 million in payments over the last eight quarters.
• Travel and foreign exchange businesses showing significant recovery post-COVID-19.

Negative

• Adverse impact from the strengthening of the US dollar on results.

JOHNS CREEK, Ga., Oct. 21, 2022 (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 provided an update on the state of its business while reaffirming a strong business outlook for the future.

• Strategic Investment Committee – The Company announced that it has received inbound interest from several reputed strategic and institutional international players, for substantial investments in Ebix or/and its subsidiaries. Accordingly, the independent Board’s Strategic Investment Committee will be evaluating any such offers, in consultation with its investment banking and legal advisors.
  
  
• Investments in EbixCash – The Company also announced that its Indian subsidiary is exploring interest from a few reputed international players in taking a substantial minority investment in EbixCash, in line with the DRHP filed already.
  
  
• Engagement of Investment Bankers – Ebix also declared that it is presently actively utilizing the services of a few reputed international Bankers to refinance its existing loan facilities. The Company also announced that it has received an exploratory term sheet from one of its existing lenders. The Company will announce further details on the refinancing front, once something firm has been agreed upon, on the refinancing side.
  
  
• EbixCash IPO update – The Company is hopeful of an expeditious approval of its subsidiary’s DRHP leading to filing of the RHP and the eventual IPO. Also, EbixCash has already received in-principal approval from the two stock exchanges BSE and NSE. The Company reaffirmed its commitment to an expeditious IPO in line with the Indian regulatory and compliance guidelines.
  
  
• EbixCash Compliance update – EbixCash has received all the requisite license renewals for future periods for its various regulated businesses including foreign exchange, pre-paid card businesses, and the BBPOU licenses from the financial regulatory body governing such licenses; besides having cleared the inspection audit of the financial regulatory body successfully.
  
  
• EbixCash Audit Update – Two independent joint statutory auditors for the consolidated India business have audited and filed the EbixCash audit for the 3-year period ended March 2022 and expressed an unqualified opinion on both - the consolidated India business and the Indian gift card subsidiary.
  
  
• Consistent Compliance Oversight – The Company’s accounting treatment of any of its EbixCash businesses has remained unchanged across its previous and present auditors, with strict compliance to accounting standards. The Company has the oversight of a highly respected independent Board including the former SEC Economics cell chairman, Former Chairman of Bombay stock exchange, former Executive Director Reserve Bank of India, Former Deputy Managing Director of India’s largest Bank SBI amongst others. Besides, Ebix’s consolidated SOX compliance is handled by EY, while its valuation is also handled by KPMG.
  
  
• EbixCash Legal update – On July 7^th 2022, the Company announced that the Delhi Court has blocked the publishing of a short document in India, with immediate effect. Further, the Court, vide its Order, directed Google LLC and Twitter, Inc to take down relevant URLs (as specified in the Order) from the Indian domain pertaining to the short report. The short report was further discredited with the subsequent filing of the 3-year audited financials by two independent auditors, besides the renewal of various regulatory licenses and clearance of various inspection audits by the relevant agencies.

• Strong Financial Discipline – Ebix today reaffirmed its confidence in the business’s continued cash generation abilities. The Company’s financial discipline can be gauged from the fact that over the last 8 quarters, the Company has made cumulative cash payments aggregating $229 million just for cash taxes, shareholder dividends and lender principal & interest payments only. This includes principal payments of $71.7 million towards debt reduction.
  
  
• Business Outlook – The Company reaffirmed its strong business outlook for its businesses worldwide.
  
  
  1. In spite of the drastic adverse impact of COVID-19 on some of its businesses wherein a few thousand people are employed (like travel, foreign exchange, remittance, consulting etc.), the Company has continued to clock EBITDA plus stock-based compensation run rate of $144 million as of June 30^th 2022.
  2. While the significant strengthening of the US dollar in recent times will have an adverse impact on its results, yet the Company believes that the post COVID 19 rebounding of many of the businesses is likely to benefit the Company in a good measure.
  3. The Company’s travel and foreign exchange businesses continue to show great recovery post Covid-19, in Q3 2022 both year-over-year and sequentially. In Q2 2022, the forex businesses grew 199% year-over-year while travel businesses grew 399% year-over-year.
  4. The Company’s bus exchange business last week secured the mandate to power the technology in all the buses run by India’s largest state roadways corporation for a large western state. The Company will soon announce details of that award.
     
     

About Ebix, Inc.

With approximately 200 offices across 6 continents, Ebix, Inc., (NASDAQ: EBIX) endeavors to provide on-demand software and e-commerce services to the insurance, financial services, travel, healthcare and e-learning industries. In the Insurance sector, Ebix’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 administration and risk compliance services, around the world.

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.

With a "Phygital” strategy that combines over 650,000 physical agent distribution outlets throughout India and Southeast Asia as of December 31, 2021, to an Omni-channel online digital platform, the Company’s Financial exchange portfolio of software and services encompasses domestic and international money remittance, foreign exchange (Forex), pre-paid gift cards, utility payments, travel services and technologies for insurance, bus information systems, lending and wealth management across 75+ countries including India. EbixCash has Forex operations in approximately 16 international airports, including Delhi, Mumbai, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai and Kolkata. EbixCash is a leader in the international remittance business based on gross transactional value. EbixCash, through its travel portfolio (Via.com and EbixCash.com), is one of the leading travel exchanges based in India and catering to Southeast Asian markets, with over 517,000 agents and approximately 17,900 registered corporate clients. EbixCash's financial technologies business offers software solutions to various clients in the areas of wealth, asset and lending management, insurance and bus information systems. EbixCash's business process outsourcing services provide information technology and call center services to a variety of industries. For more information, visit the Company’s website at www.ebixcash.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,” 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 for the year ended December 31, 2021 and subsequent reports filed with the SEC, as well as: the ongoing effects of the Covid-19 global pandemic, 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 India, Australia and Asia, Latin America and Europe wherein we have significant and/or growing operations); fluctuations in the equity markets, including market disruptions and significant interest rate fluctuations, which may impede our access to, or increase the cost of, external financing; ability to secure additional financing to support capital requirements; credit facility provisions that could materially restrict our business; costs and effects of litigation, investigations or similar matters that could affect our business, operating results and financial condition; and international conflict, including terrorist acts and wars.

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.

Disclaimer:

EbixCash Limited is proposing, subject to receipt of requisite approvals, market conditions and other considerations, to make an initial public offer of its equity shares and has filed a draft red herring prospectus (“DRHP”) with the Securities and Exchange Board of India. The DRHP is available on the website of the SEBI at www.sebi.gov.in as well as on the websites of the book running lead managers, Motilal Oswal Investment Advisors Limited at www.motilaloswalgroup.com, Equirus Capital Private Limited at www.equirus.com, ICICI Securities Limited at www.icicisecurities.com, SBI Capital Markets Limited at www.sbicaps.com and YES Securities (India) Limited at www.yesinvest.in, respectively, and the websites of the stock exchange(s) at www.bseindia.com and www.nseindia.com, respectively. Investors should note that investment in equity shares involves a high degree of risk and for details relating to such risk, see "Risk Factors" of the RHP, when available. Potential investors should not rely on the DRHP for any investment decision.

CONTACT:

Darren Joseph

678 -281-2027 or IR@ebix.com

David Collins or Chris Eddy

Catalyst Global - 212-924-9800 or ebix@catalyst-ir.com  

FAQ

What recent business updates did Ebix announce?

Ebix reported interest from international investors for substantial investments and is exploring a minority investment in EbixCash.

What is the status of EbixCash's IPO?

EbixCash is on track for an IPO, having received in-principal approvals from the BSE and NSE.

How has Ebix's financial discipline been demonstrated?

Ebix has made $229 million in cumulative cash payments over the last eight quarters for taxes, dividends, and debt repayments.

What are the main challenges facing Ebix's business outlook?

The strengthening US dollar is expected to adversely impact the company's financial results.