- Retains Dominant Leadership Role in Foreign Exchange, Inward and Education Money Remittance Sectors
- Addition of five international airports with presence now across 25 international airports.
- Launches UPI Handle to Facilitate Seamless Digital Transactions countrywide
NOIDA, India, Jan. 08, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- EbixCash Limited, a subsidiary of Ebix, Inc. (OTC: EBIXQ), a leading international supplier of On-Demand software and E-commerce services to the insurance, financial, healthcare and e-learning industries, today provided a summary update about its payment solutions vertical while reporting exceptional year-over-year (YOY) revenue and income growth across its payments solutions business that encompasses the sectors of foreign exchange, inward and outward money remittance.
EbixCash continued its leadership in the Foreign Exchange (Forex) arena with YOY growth of approximately 38% in 2023. The last quarter of the calendar year from September to December 2023, resulted in an estimated record gross revenue of INR 144 crores, which translates to YOY growth of 24% as compared to the fourth quarter of 2022.
T C Guruprasad, Managing Director, EbixCash Payment Solutions said, "In the foreign exchange business, the year 2023 has been nothing short of extraordinary, and we are pleased to announce that we have achieved estimated gross revenue of INR 556 crores with 0.25 Mn transactions per month in the year. The last quarter of the calendar year from September to December 2023 (Q4'23) accounted for an estimated INR 144 crore of gross revenue. We are optimistic of continuing the growth trajectory in the Jan'24 to March'24 quarter (Q1'24) and are targeting gross revenue of INR 175 crore in Q1'24 with sequential growth of approximately 22% over Q4'23 and YOY growth of approximately 45% in Q1'24 as compared to Q1'23. In terms of operating income, 2023 was a record year for the Payment Solutions Division, and we are optimistic that the Division will set new records in terms of operating income benchmarks in the year 2024."
Guruprasad added, "We also take pride to report that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) handpicked EbixCash to showcase to the inter-governmental G-7 Financial Action Task Force (FATF) audit team, our exemplary compliance framework and control systems for FX business, in line with RBI's high standards. The whole exercise spanning over two months included interactions with RBI, FIU, and top officials from the Ministry of Finance. The FATF team visited India recently to study and rate the country's financial system framework on diverse areas like anti- money laundering and anti- terrorist financing activities."
EbixCash continued to dominate the airport foreign exchange business in 2023 with the addition of Forex counters at six new airports - Ranchi, Goa, Aurangabad, Bhubaneswar, Surat, and Vizag, taking the total airport presence to 25 international airports for offering foreign exchange services. In addition, new counters were added at Kannur, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Trichy and Chennai airports.
Furthermore, EbixCash's corporate Forex business experienced remarkable YOY growth, leading to an expansion in its corporate clientele, with notable client additions in the form of large conglomerates in the sector of Paints, Heavy Engineering, Retail distribution, Industrial Manufacturing, Auto manufacturing, IT/ITES service providers and a few other industries.
In the year 2023, EbixCash also reported 30% YOY growth in the student outward remittance business. The business witnessed an impressive increase in GIC transactions and added many marquee overseas education, international payment aggregators and NBFCs to its portfolio of partners. To better serve its international clients, EbixCash opened a new branch in Namakkal specifically tailored to cater to students travelling to UK for higher studies.
EbixCash's bank notes and franchisee business achieved an all-time high marked by the inclusion of many new prestigious 5-star properties as clients, across various international hotel chains. EbixCash also initiated retail delivery services with one of the largest retail banks in the country and implemented a successful cross-selling strategy for travel cards for multiple banks.
EbixCash's Travel card continued its growth trajectory, surpassing a Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) of USD 450 million in the first nine months, with present average monthly sale of USD 50 million on Visa and MasterCard, including distribution of bank cards.
EbixCash Payment Solutions group also reported that it continued its dominant leadership role in the Inward remittance business (MTSS) in 2023, while processing 4.4 million transactions in the calendar year 2023. The Division is targeting substantial YOY growth in the year 2024 as compared to 2023.
EbixCash also reported that it has successfully completed the beta launch of its own UPI handle to facilitate seamless digital transactions for consumers nationally. EbixCash expects this to be an exciting new area of growth in the year 2024.
About EbixCash
With a "Phygital" strategy that combines over 650,000 physical agent distribution outlets throughout India and Southeast Asia as of December 31, 2021, to an Omni-channel online digital platform, the Company's Financial exchange portfolio of software and services encompasses domestic and international money remittance, foreign exchange (Forex), pre-paid gift cards, utility payments, travel services and technologies for insurance, bus information systems, lending and wealth management across 75+ countries including India. EbixCash has Forex operations in approximately 16 international airports, including Delhi, Mumbai, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai and Kolkata. EbixCash, a subsidiary of Ebix, Inc. (OTC:EbixQ) is a leader in the international remittance business based on gross transactional value. EbixCash, through its travel portfolio (Via.com and EbixCash.com), is one of the leading travel exchanges based in India and catering to Southeast Asian markets, with over 517,000 agents and approximately 17,900 registered corporate clients. EbixCash's financial technologies business offers software solutions to various clients in the areas of wealth, asset and lending management, insurance and bus information systems. EbixCash's business process outsourcing services provide information technology and call center services to a variety of industries. For more information, visit the Company's website at 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," 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 for the year ended December 31, 2022 and subsequent reports filed with the SEC, as well as: the ongoing effects of the Covid-19 global pandemic, 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 India, Australia and Asia, Latin America and Europe wherein we have significant and/or growing operations); fluctuations in the equity markets, including market disruptions and significant interest rate fluctuations, which may impede our access to, or increase the cost of, external financing; ability to secure additional financing to support capital requirements; credit facility provisions that could materially restrict our business; costs and effects of litigation, investigations or similar matters that could affect our business, operating results and financial condition; and international conflict, including terrorist acts and wars.
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:
Satish Sapru
satish.sapru@Ebix.com or +91 99990 13426
