Ebix Acquires Two Luxury Travel Firms
Ebix Acquires Two Travel Firms For About $14.2 million
Software services firm Ebix has acquired two luxury travel firms for about $14.2 million as it looks to strengthen its position in the travel exchange market.
Ebix acquired Mumbai-based Mercury Travels and Delhi-based Leisure Corp. Pvt. Ltd., the company said in a statement. With the acquisitions, the company said, it aims to launch a niche luxury travel brand. Ebix said it funded the acquisition using internal cash reserves and expects the acquisition to be immediately accretive to its earnings.
The luxury travel exchange will be named Mercury - An EbixCash Luxury initiative, and will focus on the luxury, events and sports-related traveller and will be led by Leisure Corp. founder Naveen Kundu, the statement said.
“Excited to be able to bring these two leading companies together, with the goal of creating a pioneering luxury travel initiative,” Robin Raina, chief executive officer of Ebix, said in the statement.
The new entity will comprise Mercury Travel’s entire corporate, leisure and adventure-related travel business, Leisure Corp’s sports and events-related travel business and event-based travel portfolio of Via.com, which it bought in October last year.
Kundu will hold 15 percent stake in the new initiative, while Ebix will have the controlling stake of 85 percent. Mercury’s forex business will be integrated with EbixCash’s existing forex business.
With the acquisitions, Ebix is likely to add around 400 new employees, taking its total headcount to around 7,600.