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<p>Financial services provider<a href="http://dealstreetasia.com/tag/centrum" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><strong> Centrum Group</strong> </a>has agreed to sell its entire stake in its money exchange business, Centrum Direct, to US-based technology firm <strong><a href="http://dealstreetasia.com/tag/ebix" target="_blank" rel="noopener">EBIX Inc</a></strong>, for around Rs 1,200 crore ($185 million).</p></article>

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<p>Financial services provider<a href="http://dealstreetasia.com/tag/centrum" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><strong> Centrum Group</strong> </a>has agreed to sell its entire stake in its money exchange business, Centrum Direct, to US-based technology firm <strong><a href="http://dealstreetasia.com/tag/ebix" target="_blank" rel="noopener">EBIX Inc</a></strong>, for around Rs 1,200 crore ($185 million).</p>
<p>Centrum Direct is a step-down subsidiary of Centrum Capital, which holds equity shares in the unit through Centrum Retail Services Ltd.</p>
<p>It offers foreign exchange, corporate and leisure travel, insurance, visa and e-business services. It has a network of 125 branches across 48 cities, according to its website.</p>
<p>Under the terms of the deal, the entire team and assets of Centrum Direct will be transferred to EBIX Inc and will become a part of EbixCash, an end-to-end financial exchange, as per a stock exchange filing.</p>
<p>The transaction is likely to be completed in 45-60 days after attaining the requisite approvals.</p>
<p>In 2017, Centrum had divested 18.5 per cent of its stake in the money exchange unit to a group of PE investors – Jacob Ballas, New York Life and Evolvence.</p>
<p>The unit sale comes as a part of Centrum’s plans to exit its non-core businesses in the country. This is aimed to help Centrum to garner capital to grow its NBFC operations focused on housing finance, SME and microfinance lending.</p>
<p>&#8220;The sale proceeds will provide Centrum Group a significant resource base to strengthen our core businesses of wealth management, institutional &amp; retail broking, investment banking, insurance and our lending verticals along with identifying strategic opportunities for growth,&#8221; said Jaspal Bindra, Executive Chairman, Centrum Group.</p>
<p>Ebix provides on-demand software and e-commerce services to the insurance, financial, e-governance and healthcare industries globally. Its subsidiary EbixCash claims to have domestic remittance volume of approximately $100 million per month, with a presence in prepaid cards, domestic remittances and bill payments, processing approximately 600,000 transactions per day and $2 billion in annual payment volume.</p>
<p>The company has been expanding its operations through acquisitions. Earlier this year, Ebix also acquired Money Transfer Service Scheme (MTSS) business of India’s<strong><a href="http://dealstreetasia.com/tag/transcorp" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> Transcorp International Ltd</a></strong> for about $7.4 million through one of its Indian subsidiaries. In 2017, Ebix had acquired at least five businesses in India including buying out Indian online travel and e-commerce exchange<strong> <a href="http://dealstreetasia.com/tag/via" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Via.com</a></strong> for about $75 million.</p>
<p>It also acquired 80 per cent stake in payments solutions exchange<strong><a href="http://dealstreetasia.com/tag/itzcash" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> ItzCash</a></strong>, and bought the  remittance businesses of <strong><a href="http://dealstreetasia.com/tag/youfirst" target="_blank" rel="noopener">YouFirst Money Express Pvt. Ltd</a></strong>, <strong><a href="http://dealstreetasia.com/tag/wall-street-finance" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Wall Street Finance Ltd</a></strong>, and <strong><a href="http://dealstreetasia.com/tag/paul-merchants" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Paul Merchants Ltd</a></strong>.</p>
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<p>&#8220;The acquisition of Centrum Direct provides us with new abilities in niche financial exchange sectors while expanding our footprint in India. We have been eager to take up a strong position in India’s airports and shipping ports,&#8221; Robin Raina, Chairman, President and CEO, EBIX Inc., said</p>
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<p><strong>Also Read:</strong></p>
<p><span style="color: #ff0000;"><strong><a style="color: #ff0000;" href="https://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/pe-investors-buy-stake-in-centrums-forex-business-63944/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">India: Jacob Ballas, New York Life led group buy 30% in Centrum forex business</a></strong></span></p>
<p><span style="color: #ff0000;"><strong><a style="color: #ff0000;" href="https://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/india-ebix-acquires-money-transfer-business-from-transcorp-for-7-4m-89703/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">India: Ebix acquires money transfer business from Transcorp for $7.4m</a></strong></span></p>
<p><span style="color: #ff0000;"><strong><a style="color: #ff0000;" href="https://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/ebix-to-acquire-travel-firm-via-com-85423/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ItzCash parent Ebix to acquire Indian travel agency Via.com at $75m valuation</a></strong></span></p>
<p><span style="color: #ff0000;"><strong><a style="color: #ff0000;" href="https://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/us-based-ebix-to-invest-120m-for-stake-in-indian-digital-payment-provider-itzcash-73416/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">US-based Ebix to invest $120m for stake in Indian digital payment provider ItzCash</a></strong></span></p>


Financial services provider Centrum Group to sell entire stake in money exchange business, Centrum Direct, to US based technology firm EBIX Inc, for around $185 million.

India: Centrum sells money exchange unit to US-based EBIX for $185m

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India: Centrum sells money exchange unit to US-based EBIX for $185m

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