Why Yatra’s Broken Deal Won’t Help Corporate Travel’s Mergers-and-Acquisitions Prospects
Photo Credit: Ebix chairman and CEO Robin Raina talks at Ebix Presents TV18 India Rising Summit 2019, a pan-India thought leadership effort sponsored by Raina's U.S.-based software company. Ebix
Skift Take
As well as the devastating short-term effects, we're now starting to see how coronavirus can equally have longer lasting impacts on the corporate travel sector.
Bad news travels fast, and online agency Yatra’s decision to terminate its merger with Ebix may end up unnerving investors and deter larger firms from buying in an already jittery corporate travel sector.
Yatra, the second biggest online travel agency in India, behind MakeMyTrip,
was valued at $337.8 million when the all-stock transaction deal was announced last summer. The Yatra Business Travel division is the biggest online corporate travel agency in the country.
But last week Yatra said it was terminating the merger, and is now filing a litigation seeking “substantial damages” over alleged breach of deal terms by software firm Ebix,
It’s one of several large-scale acquisitions to fall by the wayside in recent months. Last month, private equity firm Carlyle Group and GIC pulled out of a deal to invest in American Express Global Business Travel, while Travelport and Wex are also disputing a sale.
The Yatra-Ebix falling out will now likely impact further deals, acc
