Edenred India eyes M&A opportunities;looks to expand into

Edenred, a prepaid corporate services company,is looking atmerger and acquisition (M&A) opportunities andexpanding in small towns to tap up to 10 million more employed people for its meal benefit allowance programme in the country, a senior executive said.

The company, known for its 'Ticket Restaurant' meal cards, is also looking at organic growth by increasing merchant partners, launching new products and solutions.

"India is a strong market and we are looking at both organic as well asinorganic opportunities to grow our business inIndia. We are exploring M&A in areas like employees benefit space, fintech partners and multi-wallet space. We have the capacity to invest for the same," Edenred (India) chief operating officer Puneet Khanna told PTI.

French firmEdenred, which employs 8,000 people in 45 countries, sells prepaid meal vouchers that employers offer to workers.

Globally, the group claims to serve more than one billion meals a year.

The companystarted itsIndiaoperations in 1997 and has nearly 2.5 million users and over 3,600corporate as well as PSU clients in 3,500 cities across the country.

Khanna said the next level of growth will be propelled by the digitisation of hyper-local affiliates and the rise in the number of salaried class opting for meal allowances in tier II and III cities.

"We are looking toexpand our reach to 4,500 cities by 2019. We also see potential of addingeight to 10 million employees from tier II and III cities who can opt for meal benefit allowance, estimated at a market size of around Rs 25,000 crore," he added.

The company expects ongoing digitisation measures to offer hugefillip to demand for digital meal cards.

The trend of ordering food online is rapidly emerging, especially among the salaried class in urban cities,where people have limited time to visit a restaurant for their daily meals, according to Khanna.

Edenredsaw that its 'Ticket Restaurant Meal' card use for these food delivery services soared from 1 per cent in 2014 to 15 per cent at the end of 2017, he said.

In view of the upcoming festive season, the company has launched eCompliments, an omni-channel gifting platform that will offer eVouchers, gift cards and physical gifts, and is hopeful of it to contribute nearly 25 per cent to the companys overall portfolio, said Khanna.

He also said that to expand employee benefits, Edenred has urged the government to increase tax-free meal allowance to Rs 500, from the present Rs 50 per meal, considering the inflation since 2001.