Ebix to acquire Indian online travel agency Yatra for $337.8M

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.

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.