EbixCash's US parent files for Chapter II bankruptcy

Over the past few years, Ebix Inc. has taken huge debt to finance an aggressive expansion across countries

- Arti Singh

Robin Raina-led Ebix Inc. filed for bankruptcy in the US on Monday after missing the last deadline to repay over $600 million (about ₹5,000 crore) to lenders. The move cast a cloud over its Indian unit EbixCash, which operates in forex, gift cards and payments services.

The Nasdaq-listed company had been trying to repay loans by raising ₹6,000 crore from an initial public offering (IPO) of EbixCash, a plan that has failed to take off despite a go-ahead from the stock market regulator.

Ebix Inc. and a set of US subsidiaries filed the Chapter 11 petition in a Texas court after failing to repay the $617 million loan that the company had defaulted on in September. The filing cited three factors that pushed Ebix’s US business towards bankruptcy. First, interest rate expenses that jumped from about $32 million in 2020 to $93 million in 2023. Second, a change of auditor in 2021 that hurt investor sentiment and limited its ability to borrow. And third, a 2022 report from Hindenburg Research that caused a more than 40% decline in its market value and led to several shareholder actions. All of this made it challenging for the company to pay back the money it owed to lenders, Ebix said.