Ebix to acquire online travel exchange Via for USD 75 m

Ebix, an international supplier of on-demand software and e-commerce services for the financial industry, today announced that one of its Singapore subsidiaries will acquire Via.com, an omni-channel online travel and assisted e-commerce exchange in an all-cash deal for USD 75 million.
Ebix intends to consolidate this acquisitions into its financial exchange - EbixCash while bringing significant synergies and redundancies to the combined operation, the company said.
The acquisition of Via.com expands on Ebix's distribution network to over 224,000 distribution outlets in the South East of Asia, besides offering significant cross selling opportunities for Ebixs EbixCash Financial Exchange portfolio of products, it said in a statement here.

The closing of the transaction is expected over the next few days, it added.
"I believe that the addition of Via's integrated platform into EbixCash financial exchange allows us tremendous cross-selling opportunities through each other's distribution networks as our product portfolio is complementary and a perfect fit for each of our distribution outlets and corporate clients," Ebix Chairman, President and CEO Robin Raina said.
The acquisition of the omni-channel business would further strengthen Ebix's position in the financial exchange market in India, as travel transactions can be one of the key areas of any leading financial exchange, with an estimated user base of 600 million in India alone.

Via.com has over 110,000 distribution outlets and 8,000 corporate clients, and processes over 24.5 million transactions every year, the statement said.

The companys integrated online platform offers mobile phone recharges, money transfer, insurance, prepaid gift cards and retail products, besides domestic and international air, hotel and holidays, rail, bus and rental car bookings.
The Via.com distribution network encompasses over 85,000 agents in India, 14,700 agents in Indonesia, 9,900 agents in Philippines, 600 agents in Singapore and 350 agents in UAE and Oman.
Ebix also announced that it expects the business to generate around USD 33 million in GAAP revenues in 2018 with approximately 30 per cent operating margins.

The RainMaker Group acted as the sole financial advisor to Shareholders of Via.
Ebix did not use any investment bankers for the transaction.