ATLANTA, GA – November 23, 2009 – Ebix, Inc. (NASDAQ: EBIX) a leading international supplier of On-Demand software and E-commerce services to the insurance industry, today announced that it has decided to further strengthen its operations in Singapore & India, towards centralizing the company’s worldwide software development and intellectual property rights in the region.
Ebix announced that it has strengthened its development operations further in India by purchasing another building in the Tax Free zone in Noida, India under the SEZ act of the Govt. of India. This new building will expand Ebix’s development capacity to 620 developers in the SEZ area. Under the SEZ act of the Govt. of India, Ebix has received free status for 5 years till 2014-15 and 50% tax-free status for 5 years after that. The SEZ Company in India is a wholly owned subsidiary of Ebix Singapore.
The company also declared today that it is centralizing all its international accounting operations for all countries outside United States, in India. In addition, the company is also presently finishing an exercise to empower its Singapore Company as the Global headquarters for all intellectual property rights across the company. Ebix’s Singapore operations coupled with its subsidiary development and accounting operations in India, will result in the region becoming the center of excellence for the company, in terms of Ebix’s worldwide intellectual property rights and software development operations.
Making the above announcement, the company also issued a projection for its tax rates over the next few years. The company declared that it expects the tax rate for the company globally, to increase in a gradual fashion, by 3 to 7% over the next 24 months to a global effective tax rate ranging from 8 to 12%. The company has been receiving lots of requests from shareholders over the last few months, to get an overview of the company’s tax projections over the next few years and thus decided to issue a projection on the tax rate.
About Ebix
A leading international supplier of On-Demand software and E-commerce services
to the insurance industry, Ebix, Inc., (NASDAQ:EBIX) provides end to end solutions
ranging from infrastructure Exchanges, carrier systems, agency systems and BPO
services to custom software development for all entities involved in the insurance
industry.
With 30+ offices across Singapore, Australia, the US, New Zealand, India, China, Japan and Canada, Ebix powers multiple exchanges across the world in the field of life, annuity, health and property & casualty insurance, while conducting in excess of $100 billion in insurance premiums on its platforms. Through its various SaaS based software platforms, Ebix employs hundreds of insurance and technology professionals that provide products, support and consultancy to thousands of customers on six continents. Ebix’s focus on quality has enabled it to be awarded Level 5 status of the Carnegie Mellon Software Engineering Institute’s Capability Maturity Model (CMM). Ebix has also earned ISO 9001:2000 certification for both its development and BPO units in India. For more information, visit the Company’s website at www.ebix.com
CONTACT:
Neil van Helden
678-242-2824 or neil.vanhelden@ebix.com
Aaron
678-281-2027 or atikkoo@ebix.com
Safe Harbor for Forward Looking Statements under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 — This press release contains various forward looking statements and information that are based on management's beliefs, as well as assumptions made by, and information currently available to management, including statements regarding future economic performance and financial condition, global tax rates, liquidity and capital resources, acceptance of the Company's products by the market and management's plans and objectives. The Company has tried to identify such forward looking statements by use of words such as "expects," "intends," "anticipates," "plans," "believes," "will," "should," and similar expressions, but these words are not the exclusive means of identifying such statements. Such statements are subject to various risks, uncertainties and other factors which could cause actual results to vary materially from those expressed in, or implied by, the forward looking statements. Such risks, uncertainties and other factors include the extent to which the Company's new products and services can be successfully developed and marketed, the integration and other risks associated with recent and future acquisitions, the willingness of independent insurance agencies to outsource their computer and other processing needs to third parties, the Company's ability to continue to develop new products to effectively address market needs in an industry characterized by rapid technological change, the Company's dependence on the insurance industry (and in particular independent agents), the highly competitive and rapidly changing automation systems market, the Company's ability to effectively protect its applications software and other proprietary information, the Company's ability to attract and retain quality management, and software, technical sales and other personnel, the potential negative impact on the Company's outsourcing business in India from adverse publicity and possible governmental regulation, the risks of disruption of the Company's Internet connections or internal service problems, the possibly adverse effects of a substantial increase in volume of traffic on the Company's website, mainframe and other servers, possible security breaches on the Company's website and the possible effects of insurance regulation on the Company's business. Certain of these, as well as other, risks, uncertainties and other factors, are described in more detail in Ebix’s periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the company’s annual report on form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2008, included under "Item 1. Business—Risk Factors." Except as expressly required by the federal securities laws, the Company undertakes no obligation to update any such factors or to publicly update any of the forward looking statements contained herein to reflect future events or developments or changed circumstances or for any other reason.