U.S.-Based Ebix Buys Majority Stake in India’s ItzCash
Indian payment solutions provider and Pay Award-winning ItzCash Card Ltd. has a new main backer. U.S.-based Ebix, which sells on-demand software and e-commerce services to the insurance, financial, e-governance and health care industries, has taken an 80 percent stake in the company for $120 million.
The deal brings ItzCash under the Ebix umbrella. Ebix said it expects the results of the deal to show up in its earnings results within nine months. The purchase price includes upfront cash of $76 million and “a contingent earn out of up to $44 million payable over a period of three years from closing,” Ebix said. ItzCash is part of India’s Essel Group, with which Ebix has entered into a joint venture.
ItzCash is a pioneer in electronic payments in India, offering utility bill payments, travel bookings, movie tickets, prepaid gift cards, remittances, insurance premium payments, property tax payments and mobile transactions.
“With the youngest tech-savvy society, the largest middle class, a 1.3 billion population, a country committed to going digital and a growth rate of 7 percent plus, India is an emerging economic superpower today,” said Robin Raina, Ebix chairman, president and CEO. “In ItzCash, we found attributes that none of their peers had—market penetration across 3,000 cities, 75,000+ brick and mortar distribution outlets, a CAGR of approximately 35% and the only company who was profitable amongst all its peers.”
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