Ebix Acquires Miles Software, a Leading Global Provider of Asset & Wealth Management Software


JOHNS CREEK, Ga., Sept. 04, 2018 (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 that one of its Indian subsidiaries has signed the agreement to acquire Mumbai based Miles Software for an amount of approximately $19 million, with an additional contingent earn out of up to $8.5 million payable after 2 years.

Miles is India’s Leading wealth and asset management on-demand software provider to banks, asset managers and wealth management firms, besides having 300+ financial service customers across 18 different countries in Europe, Middle East and South-East Asia.

While being tightly integrated into Ebix’s on-demand software offerings globally, Miles Software will serve as Ebix’s Investment, Wealth and Asset Management Division with its products being interfaced across both EbixCash financial exchanges and EbixExchange insurance exchanges. All key Miles business executives have been retained by Ebix with the Miles Founder Milan Ganatra and his team being entrusted with leading Ebix’s global efforts in these niche competence areas. Milan will be also become a key member of the EbixCash senior leadership team in India, to have an enhanced focus on the global fast-growing wealth and asset management industry.

In the financial year 2017, Miles had revenues of $8 million and EBITDA of approximately 8%. Ebix believes that the business can continue to grow at the rate of 20% plus annually with operating margins of 30% or more, once fully integrated. Ebix expects the acquisition to be immediately accretive to its earnings and forecasts 8 cents in increased Diluted EPS, once the acquisition is fully integrated over the next 6 months. Ebix funded the acquisition using its internal cash reserves and did not use any investment bankers for the transaction. Aarayaa Advisory Services served as the exclusive financial advisors to Miles Software.

Key Facts about Miles:

  • Founded in 1999, Miles is headquartered in India, with sales presence in Europe, Middle East and South-East Asia.
  • With more than 300 enterprise implementations across 18 countries, Miles derives 44% of its revenues from India and the balance coming primarily from Europe, Middle East and South-East Asia.
  • The Company on-demand solutions encompass the areas of wealth. portfolio, asset, custody, collateral and loan management, besides having enterprise cloud based investment management and investment compliance solutions.
  • The Company’s flagship product MoneyWare, has been ranked #1 Global Private Banking Solution player for the third consecutive year by IBS Intelligence, UK in 2018 based on sales clocked globally in the year.
  • Miles solutions are already interfaced with Ebix’s Indus lending based enterprise solution offerings.
  • The Company has a Blue chip referenceable client base of leading banks, asset managers, wealth managers and custodians across all its target markets
  • Miles’s India customer base includes leading banks and financial institutions like Kotak Mahindra Bank, State Bank of India, ICICI Bank, Edelweiss, and Motilal Oswal etc.
  • The Company has a leading presence in many geographies like UK, Philippines, East & West Africa. Clients include leading banks like First Abu Dhabi Bank, State Bank of Mauritius, Land Bank of Philippines, BRITAM and some of the Largest global Investment/Asset Managers.

"We are immensely pleased to have become a part of a Company with an extremely rich domain focus and a who’s who financial institution client base. Ebix today is the only on-demand Exchange in the world that aspires to bring true convergence between financial, insurance, asset management, lending and wealth management,” Milan Ganatra, Founder and CEO of Miles Software said. “With 7,500+ employees servicing clients in India, Ebix offers us expansion possibilities that are truly exciting.  Ebix’s expanse across the world and more specifically in North America, Australia, UK and Brazil has the potential of opening up immense new opportunities for our products, as we interface them to Ebix CRM and other Exchange solutions in these markets.”

Milan added, “We strongly believe that there is great synergy and mutual shared DNA between Ebix and Miles’s focus on globalization, domain focus and the culture of innovation and excellence. I am confident that the Miles team has the talent and ability to take Ebix to even greater heights."

“Miles’s wealth management, asset management, collateral based lending management and custody businesses complement Ebix’s existing offerings to financial institutions, Banks, asset managers and wealth managers across the world. It also opens up cross selling opportunities for Ebix solutions to Miles’s customer base in 18 countries,” Ebix Chairman, President and CEO Robin Raina said. “The addition of Miles to our EbixCash portfolio not only makes our financial exchange offering even more comprehensive, but also provides us with a senior management team that is proven and highly respected in the industry. I look forward to working with Milan in helping him expand the Miles footprint to United States, Australia and Brazil, while utilizing our domain focused sales and relationship oriented folks in these markets.”

Leadership in India’s Financial Exchange markets

The addition of the Miles asset management, portfolio management, custodian services and collateral based lending management to the EbixCash portfolio further strengthens Ebix’s leadership in India’s Financial Exchange markets:

    • EbixCash already has a dominant leadership position in the inward remittance exchange arena in India.
    • EbixCash is already the largest domestic remittance exchange in India with domestic remittance volume of approximately $100 million per month.
    • EbixCash is seen as a leader in the outward remittance and Forex markets, with Forex counters in 25 international airports, besides a vast network encompassing 165 outlets spread across 55 cities, 200+ franchisee partners, 2,000+ travel agents, 50+ banks and financial institutions, 1000+ SMEs, and 150+large corporate clients.
    • EbixCash through its various travel offerings including the portal Via.com and the luxury travel brand Mercury, is one of South East Asia’s leading travel exchanges with over 110,000 distribution outlets and 8000 corporate clients, processing over 24.5 million transactions every year.
    • EbixCash is also a recognized leader in prepaid cards, domestic remittances and bill payments, processing approximately 600,000 transactions per day and approximately $2 Billion in annual payment volume.
    • EbixCash is already recognized as a leader in the Gift card space with brand gift cards across all categories with 100+ Brand copartners like Amazon, Flipkart.com, Croma, Lifestyle, Big Bazaar, Tanishq, BookMyShow.com, Reliance Digital, MakeMyTrip.com, Café Coffee Day, Pizza Hut, Myntra.com, Pantaloon etc.
    • EbixCash is a leader in the utility payment space serving as a payment exchange for large utility providers like BSES, Tata Power, NDPL, Reliance Energy and Mahanagar Gas etc.
    • Ebix’s recent joint venture initiative with Bombay Stock Exchange positions it as a gateway for insurance carriers to sell insurance to India’s vast population through EbixCash’s tens of thousands of “phygital” outlets across the country, besides BSE’s strong network across the country.
    • Ebix’s recent acquisition of Indus positions it as a lending technology player who today is the backbone lending engine for over 100 banking and finance, captive auto finance, telecom and insurance companies globally.

About Ebix, Inc.

With 50+ offices across 5 continents, Ebix, Inc., (NASDAQ: EBIX) endeavors to provide On-Demand software and E-commerce services to the insurance, financial, healthcare and e-learning industries. In the Insurance sector, the Company’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 administrative and risk compliance, across the world.

With a "Phygital” strategy that combines 260,000 physical distribution outlets in many Southeast Asian Nations (“ASEAN”) countries, to an Omni-channel online digital platform, the Company’s EbixCash Financial exchange portfolio encompasses leadership in areas of domestic & international money remittance, Forex, travel, pre-paid & gift cards, utility payments, lending etc., in an emerging country like India. The Company’s Forex Exchange has an approximate 70% market share of India’s airport Foreign Exchange business encompassing 25 international airports like Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai and Kolkata International airports, while conducting over 1 million transactions per annum. EbixCash, through its travel portal Via.com, is also one of Southeast Asia’s leading travel exchanges with over 110,000 distribution outlets and 8,000 corporate clients processing over 24.5 million transactions every year. For further details, visit www.ebixcash.com

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 

About Miles Software

Incorporated in 1999, Miles is India and Mauritius’s Leading wealth and asset management on-demand software provider to banks, asset managers and wealth management firms, besides having 300+ financial service customers across 18 different countries in Europe, Middle East and South-East Asia. The Company is currently also working on developing a B2B Wealth Exchange between wealth managers, distributors and originators using blockchain technology. For more information, visit the Company’s website at www.milessoft.com

About EbixCash

An Ebix Group initiative, EbixCash is emerging as one of the leading Financial Exchanges in India. With a ‘Phygital” strategy that combines 224,000 physical distribution outlets to an Omni-channel online digital platform, EbixCash has established an enterprise financial exchange portfolio that encompasses leadership in money remittance (domestic & international), travel, pre-paid & gift cards, utility payments etc. Ebix’s recent joint venture initiative with Bombay Stock Exchange positions it strongly in India’s insurance sector. EbixCash’s portfolio of products can be accessed digitally anywhere as also across its distribution outlets spread over 5,500+ cities and towns. For further details, visit 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," "should," 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 and subsequent reports filed with the SEC, as well as: the risk of an unfavorable outcome of the pending governmental investigations or shareholder class action lawsuits, reputational harm caused by such investigations and lawsuits, 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 Australia, UK and India wherein we have significant operations); equity markets, including market disruptions and significant interest rate fluctuations, which may impede our access to, or increase the cost of, external financing; and international conflict, including terrorist acts.

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.

CONTACT:

Aradhanaa Agarwal
+91-99300 13188 or aradhanaa@ebixcash.com

Darren Joseph
+1-678 -281-2027 or IR@ebix.com

David Collins or Chris Eddy
Catalyst Global +1- 212-924-9800 or ebix@catalyst-ir.com