Directors of Indian online travel agency Yatra have unanimously
approved a bid from Atlanta-based software and e-commerce firm Ebix to acquire
it via merger for $337.8 million.
Ebix’s board of directors has also unanimously approved the
deal, and it is expected to close by the fourth quarter of 2019.
Yatra will continue to operate as its own brand within the
travel portfolio of EbixCash, a financial exchange that Ebix operates in India.
EbixCash also includes travel brands Via and Mercury, and
the company says its travel portfolio has more than 212,000 agents, 25 branches, more
than 9,800 corporate clients and processes an estimated $2.5 billion in gross
merchandise value per year.
"The acquisition of Yatra would lend itself to
significant synergies and the emergence of EbixCash as India’s largest and most
profitable travel services company, besides being the largest enterprise
financial exchange in the country,” says Robin Raina, Ebix chairman, president
and CEO.
“Over the last few months, we have evolved a detailed
synergistic plan, that once fully executed can provide between 40 to 75 cents
of accretion to the Ebix non-GAAP EPS [earnings per share]. We are excited by
the cross-selling opportunities that this combination provides us, while
further strengthening our future EbixCash IPO offering.” Ebix says it is targeting
an IPO for the second quarter of 2020.
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When this deal is finalized, the combined Ebix-Yatra company
will have more than 11,000 employees worldwide and travel business across countries
in the Middle East and Asia Pacific, with plans to expand to North America,
Latin America and Europe.
“Over the last several years, we have built Yatra into one
of India’s most well-recognized e-commerce brands, growing into the leading
corporate travel services provider and one of the largest consumer travel
companies. Becoming a part of Ebix’s EbixCash travel portfolio will enable us
to continue on that path,” says Dhruv Shringi, co-founder and CEO of Yatra
Online.
“As part of a larger diversified organization with the
necessary scale and resources to be a leader in today’s dynamic travel
marketplace, we will provide more options and an enhanced experience for our
joint customers and will be an even stronger partner to the airline, hotel, car
rental and other businesses we work with.
"We are confident that combining
Yatra’s loyal customer base, comprehensive service offering and multi-channel
platform with Ebix’s complementary Via and Mercury businesses will create a
leading online travel platform and India’s largest corporate travel platform
that will capture growth opportunities and deliver enhanced value to
shareholders.”
Founded in 2006, Yatra provides services to more than 800
corporate clients and more than nine million leisure customers, including
domestic and international air and hotel bookings, holiday packages, buses, trains,
activities, homestays and cruises.
In the fourth quarter of 2018, Yatra posted a 17% increase in
revenue to nearly $32 million. The company went public in December 2016 through
a reverse merger with Terrapin 3 Acquisition Corp.
* Check out this interview with Yatra and MakeMyTrip from The Phocuswright Conference 2018.
Phocuswright Research: India + Executive Interview