Centrum Capital soars after divesting stake in Centrum Direct

Centrum Capital rose 9.76% to Rs 67.50 at 14:50 IST on BSE after the company said it signed agreement to sell its money exchange business to EBIX Inc for approximately Rs 1200 crore.

The announcement was made during trading hours today, 3 April 2018.

Meanwhile, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 47.66 points, or 0.14% to 33,303.02.

On the BSE, 18.61 lakh shares were traded in the counter so far compared with average daily volumes of 7.94 lakh shares in the past two weeks. The stock had hit a high of Rs 68 and a low of Rs 61.10 so far during the day. The stock hit a 52-week high of Rs 90.70 on 22 September 2017. The stock hit a 52-week low of Rs 34.45 on 3 April 2017.

The Centrum Group, a leading domestic integrated financial services Group, announced that it has signed an agreement to divest its full stake in Centrum Direct (CDL), its money exchange business to EBIX Inc, an Atlanta-based leading international supplier of OnDemand software and E-commerce services. The sale value is approximately Rs 1200 crore. The entire CDL team and assets will be transferred to EBIX Inc and will become a part of EbixCash, an end-to-end financial exchange.

The agreement while approved by the Centrum board, is subject to its shareholders and other regulatory/commercial approvals. The customary process for such approvals can take a timeline of 45 to 60 days.

In 2017, Centrum had divested 18.5% of its stake in CDL to a group of PE investors - Jacob Ballas, New York Life and Evolvence. CDL is a leading Money Exchange player in India with an Authorized Dealer - II and a FFMC license. In FY 2017-18, it handled transactions worth Rs. 10,000 crores and today has a customer base of over 3 million. It's services include sale & purchase of foreign currency, overseas remittances, prepaid travel cards and travelers cheques. It has a nationwide reach through a network of 165 outlets in 55 cities and is the largest airport forex player with presence at 24 airports in India. CDL was one of the first companies to sell foreign exchange online through its web portal and also recently launched its mobile application - Centrum Pay, a digital payments solution.

Net profit of Centrum Capital rose 182.16% to Rs 6.01 crore on 3.91% rise in total income to Rs 26.87 crore in Q3 December 2017 over Q3 December 2016.

Centrum Group is an integrated domestic financial services conglomerate with over two decades of experience in the financial markets across various cycles.

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