1. eBay returns to India with 5.

5% Paytm Mall stake

BENGALURU: Ebay has picked up a 5.5% stake in Paytm Mall, as the San Jose-based online
marketplace makes another attempt to get a slice of the Indian e-commerce market.

Ebay said its global inventory will be available to over 130 million active users on Paytm Mall and
Paytm’s app ecosystem as part of the deal. The companies did not disclose the investment amount,
but sources close to the transaction said the financing round is about $150 million. ET had reported
the eBay funding in its April 22 edition.

Ebay’s investment comes at a time when Paytm Mall’s business has undergone significant
restructuring, with the company moving away from a discounting and cash backled strategy to
following an online-tooffline (O2O) model.

In January, Paytm Mall shut its national e-commerce shipping business, which involved onboarding
sellers and shipping products across the country. “This investment is a clear testament of our
turnaround, and the shopkeeper commerce model (O2O) being validated by a new set of investors,”
Vijay Shekhar Sharma, founder of Paytm, told ET.

EBay’s catalogue integration is estimated to be complete in the next couple of months. It has taken a
board observer seat in the company.

“This deal will also allow shopkeepers on our platform to source over a million unique international
products from eBay’s global base,” Sharma said.

Sharma said cross border business will account for about 10-15% of Paytm Mall’s overall sales in the
next one year. “This new relationship will accelerate our crossborder trade efforts in a rapidly
growing market, providing Paytm and Paytm Mall customers access to eBay’s selection,” said
Jooman Park, eBay senior vice-president, Apac.

EBay will, however, continue to operate its e-commerce portal in India. Paytm Mall is eBay’s third
investment in India after Snapdeal and Flipkart, both of which the company exited. The online
marketplace has struggled to build a large presence in India on its own and has chosen to make
investments in homegrown e-commerce companies to drive adoption. “India is too large a market
for any e-commerce player globally to miss, and there are very few players today at scale to bet on
in the current market"said an investor requesting anonymity.
 2. Icertis Joins SaaS Unicorn Club With $115 Mn In Funding

Icertis, which provides contract management software to customers like plane maker Airbus and
pharma giant Merck, announced the closing of a $115 million Series E round. The financing round
was co-led by Greycroft and Premji Invest, the family investment arm of Wipro Chairman and
billionaire Azim Premji. Existing institutional investors including B Capital Group, Cross Creek, Eight
Roads, Ignition Partners, Meritech Capital Partners and PSP Growth also participated in this round.
Icertis would use the funding to scale up its operations globally and on acquisitions. It would also
invest more in technologies like artificial intelligence and blockchain.

The US-based company was founded by tech industry veterans Samir Bodas and Monish Darda in
2009. It has a major presence in Pune. With this funding, the firm has become a ‘unicorn,’ or a
startup valued at more than $1 billion.

“As the CLM (contract lifecycle management) market takes off, we are thrilled to have Premji Invest
join the Icertis family, Greycroft double down by co-leading this round, and all investors re-up their
commitment as we execute on our mission to become the contract management platform of the
world,” said Samir Bodas, chief executive and co-founder of Icertis.

The company has built an artificial intelligence-infused ‘Icertis Contract Management’ (ICM)
platform. This has helped it win some of the most sophisticated enterprises across all major
verticals, as well as 5 of the world’s top 10 most valuable companies, as its customers. The ICM
platform helps customers worldwide manage over 5.7 million contracts with an aggregate value of
more than $1 trillion.

“As we run a long-term evergreen crossover fund, we look for companies with enduring growth
prospects that can execute and thrive well beyond an initial public offering,” said Sandesh Patnam,
Lead Partner for Premji Invest in the US. “Icertis has all the hallmarks of a company that will grow
into a juggernaut – an innovative product that delivers substantial value for customers, deep cash
reserves to develop the market and a track record of flawless execution,” he added.

The CLM market is massive and growing rapidly – MGI Research estimates the total addressable
market (TAM) over $20 billion, with SaaS CLM growing at a 31 per cent compound annual growth
rate. “The growth in CLM adoption is fueled by digital transformation,” said Igor Stenmark, MGI
Research Managing Director. “Companies are re-focusing technology investments away from
traditional ERP (enterprise resource planning) and financial suites towards automating and digitally
instrumenting key processes like contract management. Enterprise contract management providers
like Icertis are well-positioned to ride this wave.”
 3. Jalan panel moots transfer of RBI’s surplus in tranches over 3-5 years

The Bimal Jalan Committee on Economic Capital Framework has suggested transfer of funds from
the Reserve Bank of India to the government in tranches over 3-5 years.

The Committee will submit its report within 15 days to RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das. Based on the
recommendations, the RBI will decide what share of its reserve will be transferred to the
government.

According to sources, the report will reflect the differences of opinion among the Committee
members. It is believed that Finance Secretary Subhash C Garg, who is a member of the panel, had
some divergent views and these will be part of the report.

The Committee met for the last time on Wednesday, and according to sources, the report was given
final touches. The surplus capital transfer would help the government meet its fiscal deficit target.
The government has set a fiscal deficit target of 3.3 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP) for
the current fiscal, revised downward from 3.4 per cent pegged in the interim Budget in February.
Besides surplus capital transfer, the government is expecting a ₹90,000-crore dividend from the RBI
in the current financial year as against ₹68,000 crore received last fiscal.

Even as differences surfaced last year over the quantum of RBI’s reserve that can be transferred,
government officials had said that the global norm is to maintain reserves of 14 per cent of total
assets. The RBI’s reserves stand at 27 per cent. This issue figured in the communication between the
government and the RBI last year, and although the government had said it was not asking for a part
of the surplus reserve to be transferred to it, the general feeling was that the fixing of a norm was
the precursor to a transfer.

What earlier panels said

Earlier, the ideal size of RBI’s reserves was examined by three committees headed by V
Subrahmanyam in 1997, Usha Thorat in 2004 and Y H Malegam in 2013. While the Subrahmanyam
panel recommended building a 12 per cent contingency reserve, the Thorat panel suggested that it
should be maintained at 18 per cent of the total assets.

The RBI board did not accept the recommendation of the Thorat committee and decided to continue
with the recommendation of the Subrahmanyam panel. The Malegam panel said the RBI should
transfer an adequate amount of its profit to the contingency reserves annually, but did not come up
with a particular number.
 4. Ebix acquires Yatra Online in a ₹2,300-crore transaction
U.S.-headquartered Ebix, a provider of on-demand software and e-commerce services, on
Wednesday announced the acquisition of homegrown travel portal Yatra Online for $337.8 million
(more than ₹2,300 crore).

Following the completion of the transaction, Yatra will become part of Ebix’s EbixCash travel
portfolio, creating one of India’s “largest and most profitable” travel services companies. Both the
firms are listed on the NASDAQ.

“The acquisition of Yatra would lend itself to significant synergies and the emergence of EbixCash as
India’s largest and most profitable travel services company, besides being the largest enterprise
financial exchange in the country...

“We are excited by the cross-selling opportunities that this combination provides us, while further
strengthening our future EbixCash IPO offering,” said Robin Raina, chairman, president and CEO,
Ebix.

Yatra will continue to serve customers under its brand, alongside EbixCash’s two other travel brands
— Via and Mercury.

Under Ebix’s travel platform, the combined firm will leverage Yatra’s existing customer base, service
offering and multi-channel platform to take advantage of the growing multi-billion-dollar
opportunity in India, the statement said.

The combined company will have an international footprint with more than 11,000 employees and a
travel expanse spanning GCC, ASEAN and Asia Pacific countries. The transaction also provides the
necessary scale to extend its travel business to North America, Latin America and Europe.

The statement said that based on the 15-day volume weighted average price of of Ebix Common
Stock of $49.05 per share, each Yatra ordinary share convertible into Ebix common stock would be
valued, on an as-converted basis, at $4.90 per share.

This is approximately 32% premium on Yatra’s closing share price on March 8, 2019, the last trading
day prior to the public announcement of Ebix’s offer to acquire Yatra.

“Assuming a value of $4.90 per Yatra ordinary Share, the transaction implies an enterprise value of
$337.8 million at the Ebix collar price of $59 per share and post adjustment for indebtedness,
working capital, warrants to be converted and minimum cash requirement, a net equity value of
$239 million,” it said.

Ebix will be issuing 243,747 convertible preferred stock which, in turn, will be convertible into
4,874,931 shares of Ebix common stock. Ebix expects this transaction to be 40 to 75 cents accretive
to its non-GAAP earnings per share within a period of six to 12 months from closing.

Dhruv Shringi, co-founder and CEO, Yatra Online, said, “Over the last several years, we have built
Yatra into one of India’s most well-recognised e-commerce brands, growing into the a leading
corporate travel services provider and one of the largest consumer travel companies. Becoming a
part of Ebix’s EbixCash travel portfolio will enable us to continue on that path.”