LongTerm Posted November 5, 2012 Share Posted November 5, 2012 Interesting situation. Note that the probe was leaked by "..four people with direct knowledge of the probe..". If any of these are SEC employees there are serious problems at the SEC. If, on the other hand, they are EBIX employees, there are serious problems at EBIX and not just with the accounting. Raina has denied an SEC investigation to his knowledge. I don't think he could do that with a Wells notice in hand. So the fact that this rumor is from four anonymous sources and there are major short positions in the stock makes me wonder. In any case Ebix will be bruised. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mankap Posted November 5, 2012 Share Posted November 5, 2012 Ebix has issues a press release saying that they are not aware of any SEC investigation. I picked up some shares and bought calls today. It is happening for the second time with Ebix. Last year also shorts published a seeking alpha article and the share price dropped by 30%.Ebix was able to buyback 10% of the outstanding shares as a result of the price drop. To me it looks like a repeat of the last year's event. http://www.ebix.com/pressrelease_text.aspx?artid=252 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alpha231616967560 Posted November 5, 2012 Share Posted November 5, 2012 Earnings come out on Thursday. The timing is a bit suspicious. I wouldn't sell a share until after the conclusion of such an investigation anyway. If it is indeed a fraudulent report, where are the professional standards for Bloomberg? Jeez... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fairfaxnut Posted November 5, 2012 Share Posted November 5, 2012 Darn, missed the big drop....would of picked up more. Oh well, sold some 19 strike puts in hopes to increase my collection of EBIX shares. Fingers crossed for some more share repurchases today. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alpha231616967560 Posted November 5, 2012 Share Posted November 5, 2012 Darn, missed the big drop....would of picked up more. Oh well, sold some 19 strike puts in hopes to increase my collection of EBIX shares. Fingers crossed for some more share repurchases today. Missed the big drop? Shares are down 14% at present - if someone would have offered you a 14% discount on shares yesterday, would you have taken it? Or do you think that there is something to the Bloomberg article? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DCG Posted November 5, 2012 Share Posted November 5, 2012 Where did Bloomberg get their info? This is Bloomberg, not some ridiculous short-seller on SeekingAlpha. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alpha231616967560 Posted November 5, 2012 Share Posted November 5, 2012 From the Bloomberg article: The investor case is In Re Ebix Inc. Securities Litigation, 11-cv-02400, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Georgia (Atlanta). The case that the article refers to (11-cv-02400) is one that was spawned from the Seeking Alpha article: http://www.leagle.com/xmlResult.aspx?xmldoc=In%20FDCO%2020120928L37.xml&docbase=CSLWAR3-2007-CURR Ridiculous. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
orion Posted November 7, 2012 Share Posted November 7, 2012 Bloomberg reported Raina owned about 3.5 million shares of Ebix, accounting for 9 percent of the company’s shares, as of June 22. He held 415,889 shares as of Sept. 27, the story claimed. But Ebix said the numbers in the Bloomberg article are “completely erroneous and do not conform to Mr. Raina’s current beneficial ownership at 3,671,560 shares, as mentioned the 2012 Proxy statement filed by the Company.” Ebix also said Raina has not sold any shares since its Proxy was filed on Oct. 10. http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/news/2012/11/06/ebix-clears-up-ceo-rainas-ownership.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mankap Posted November 7, 2012 Share Posted November 7, 2012 I did not expect that bloomberg will publish things which are erroneous without checking the facts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alpha231616967560 Posted November 7, 2012 Share Posted November 7, 2012 I did not expect that bloomberg will publish things which are erroneous without checking the facts. Well, yes, there are the 'facts' about Raina's ownership that are flat wrong, and then there is the misleading publication of this article referring to a year-old case initiated by very small law firm in response to the Seeking Alpha anonymous blog post, and the CEO of the company vehemently denying the headline of the article (that there is an SEC investigation afoot), and no proof or even indication to contradict him. I am confused. I generally trust Bloomberg to be the real deal. What kind of powerful enemies does EBIX have to inspire whatever effort is necessary to get this kind of *crap* printed on Bloomberg? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vish_ram Posted November 7, 2012 Share Posted November 7, 2012 Part of reason is seller remorse. This reminds me of LUK lawsuits in their early days. Watching the FFH saga over the years helped me better understand modern media. I was adding to my EBIX during the drop. I was watching the episode of "Men who built america" where JP Morgan could manipulate the market. Nothing has changed in the last 100 years I did not expect that bloomberg will publish things which are erroneous without checking the facts. Well, yes, there are the 'facts' about Raina's ownership that are flat wrong, and then there is the misleading publication of this article referring to a year-old case initiated by very small law firm in response to the Seeking Alpha anonymous blog post, and the CEO of the company vehemently denying the headline of the article (that there is an SEC investigation afoot), and no proof or even indication to contradict him. I am confused. I generally trust Bloomberg to be the real deal. What kind of powerful enemies does EBIX have to inspire whatever effort is necessary to get this kind of *crap* printed on Bloomberg? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alpha231616967560 Posted November 8, 2012 Share Posted November 8, 2012 Down 6% this morning after earnings reported. The company's reported numbers beat estimates on earnings and revenue, so apparently Mr. Market is listening more to the allegations of SEC investigation than to the numbers. Should be an interesting conference call in 45 minutes or so for anyone who is interested. http://ebix.com/webcast Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alpha231616967560 Posted November 9, 2012 Share Posted November 9, 2012 Takeaways from the Conference call for me were: - The run rate for revenue is on target for 200 million per year, - Management is pursuing health-care exchanges especially in Republicans states now that Obama care is a sure thing, - They are pursuing an IBM-like global sales organization with product lines across international borders. - Operating expenses were up mostly because of the acquisitions - tax rate is increasing as expected. - Maybe most importantly as far as the financials go operating margin is intact & they are maintaining a laser focus on it as revenue run rate increases - Oh and of course they increased the dividend by 50% from five cents to 7 1/2 cents. I am not thrilled about that but it could be worse. I picked up some shares on the share price drop today. I guess that we can expect these gifts every so often until the market cap is in the billions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mankap Posted November 9, 2012 Share Posted November 9, 2012 I have heard for the first time from Robin that their target is revenue growth.He also mentioned that they have set $500m as revenue target for next 5 years. I think we will see good revenue growth now . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liberty Posted November 12, 2012 Author Share Posted November 12, 2012 Looks like the shorts figure a way to cause a market panic about once a year, always using the same old anonymous allegations. The "error" about how the CEO had apparently sold most of his shares (of course, fewer people see the retractation than saw the original claim) was expert scumbaggery. Personally, I'm not too worried. Just one more chance for the company to vacuum up some shares. I was pleased with the progress during the last quarter and like the strategic direction of the company (simplifying things with the 'one product' approach with lots of modules that can be turned on or off, expanding to London insurance market, working on private health exchanges, putting more focus on a strong sales force worldwide, etc). Of course, there's always a doubt in the back of my mind that maybe my due diligence wasn't good enough and that I'm missing something important... But it's impossible to have perfect information when investing, so all I can do is keep working hard to reduce the probability that I'm missing something. Just make sure you do your own DD. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liberty Posted November 21, 2012 Author Share Posted November 21, 2012 Article on the health exchanges in the US (which were mentioned in the last CC): http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-11-20/governors-have-no-excuse-not-to-build-insurance-exchanges.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vish_ram Posted November 21, 2012 Share Posted November 21, 2012 I, mankap and another individual investor attended the recent EBIX shareholder meeting (@ Westin in ATL). we talked about the short attack. Raina was very nonchalant. He basically said we'll continue to perform well, the shorts will win only if they get a bad news from the company. They haven't got any so far. Raina said one reason for the short attack is that EBIX had done remarkably well the last 10 years and it has got the attention of people who think , how can a company have such high margins and grow that fast. This was the 2nd meeting that I attended, the last time was around 5 years back, where he spent an hour with us talking wide ranging issues. I hope EBIX remains misunderstood and under short attack for years to come. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alpha231616967560 Posted November 21, 2012 Share Posted November 21, 2012 I, mankap and another individual investor attended the recent EBIX shareholder meeting (@ Westin in ATL). we talked about the short attack. Raina was very nonchalant. He basically said we'll continue to perform well, the shorts will win only if they get a bad news from the company. They haven't got any so far. Raina said one reason for the short attack is that EBIX had done remarkably well the last 10 years and it has got the attention of people who think , how can a company have such high margins and grow that fast. This was the 2nd meeting that I attended, the last time was around 5 years back, where he spent an hour with us talking wide ranging issues. I hope EBIX remains misunderstood and under short attack for years to come. I would be very interested to hear anything else you care to share from the shareholder meeting (anecdotal or otherwise). I wanted to attend myself and allowed other things to get in the way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CONeal Posted November 21, 2012 Share Posted November 21, 2012 I, mankap and another individual investor attended the recent EBIX shareholder meeting (@ Westin in ATL). we talked about the short attack. Raina was very nonchalant. He basically said we'll continue to perform well, the shorts will win only if they get a bad news from the company. They haven't got any so far. Raina said one reason for the short attack is that EBIX had done remarkably well the last 10 years and it has got the attention of people who think , how can a company have such high margins and grow that fast. This was the 2nd meeting that I attended, the last time was around 5 years back, where he spent an hour with us talking wide ranging issues. I hope EBIX remains misunderstood and under short attack for years to come. Was anything mentioned about increasing the buyback amount? Where they plan to go from here? Or how it was going regarding supporting the healthcare exchanges? Initiated a position in the last few days for the first time in a couple of years. The healthcare exchanges could be a big plus if they can get a few states to sign on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vish_ram Posted November 21, 2012 Share Posted November 21, 2012 He declined to comment on future buybacks. I asked him if depressed share price will reduce opportunities to buy other companies with stock. Raina said that they rarely use stock for acquisition. the recent ones where they issued some was due to the insistence of the seller. He was talking about trying to get exchange deals if setup by companies like costco, walmart etc I asked him how they are going to consolidate the software side after so many M&A. He said they have 1200 developers in India and are working towards a common product. Raina said he takes into account the platform, architecture of co's before acquiring. He talked about getting a call from registrar of the Indian university (Thapar) he attended asking his permission to release his transcripts to a firm in US. It looks like shorts are leaving no stone unturned. BTW mankap are Raina were batch mates in that college. There has been so much talk about exchanges and I haven't seen anything materialize. I even wonder if they'll ever get a contract. The ramp up of sales force is encouraging. Even if EBIX continues to be a great cost cutter & consolidator of second tier IT companies, they'll do decently. By luck, if they do better than that, then it is golden. IF he has come this far after taking over crappy loss making Delphi systems, what does the future hold for EBIX? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mankap Posted November 21, 2012 Share Posted November 21, 2012 I did not expect him to announce about increase in buyback to us as it would be material information. He emphasized on private exchanges and said that we would soon see private health exchanges from Costco etc. He did not seem to be angry or disturbed by short attack.He seemed to be confident and talked about executing on their plan which will provide increasing cashflows. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alpha231616967560 Posted November 21, 2012 Share Posted November 21, 2012 He declined to comment on future buybacks. I asked him if depressed share price will reduce opportunities to buy other companies with stock. Raina said that they rarely use stock for acquisition. the recent ones where they issued some was due to the insistence of the seller. He was talking about trying to get exchange deals if setup by companies like costco, walmart etc I asked him how they are going to consolidate the software side after so many M&A. He said they have 1200 developers in India and are working towards a common product. Raina said he takes into account the platform, architecture of co's before acquiring. He talked about getting a call from registrar of the Indian university (Thapar) he attended asking his permission to release his transcripts to a firm in US. It looks like shorts are leaving no stone unturned. BTW mankap are Raina were batch mates in that college. There has been so much talk about exchanges and I haven't seen anything materialize. I even wonder if they'll ever get a contract. The ramp up of sales force is encouraging. Even if EBIX continues to be a great cost cutter & consolidator of second tier IT companies, they'll do decently. By luck, if they do better than that, then it is golden. IF he has come this far after taking over crappy loss making Delphi systems, what does the future hold for EBIX? interesting stuff. thanks for sharing. I would be interested to know which programming language they will be developing future software in Microsoft ASP last time I checked, but since they talk a lot.about open standards hopefully they will be transitioning to something less expensive and more universal. As to the healthcare exchange, this is the first time that I have heard Robin mention the state healthcare exchanges specifically in a conference call or elsewhere , and that makes me think that they have something in the hopper. let's hope so. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liberty Posted November 21, 2012 Author Share Posted November 21, 2012 Thanks for sharing color on the AGM, guys. Any other interesting shareholder questions came up? Any other executives that you had a chance to talk to? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SFValue Posted December 5, 2012 Share Posted December 5, 2012 Copperfield again http://www.scribd.com/doc/115628889/EBIX-If-the-SEC-Cometh-the-SEC-Will-Findeth-or-so-we-suspect Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
siddharth18 Posted December 6, 2012 Share Posted December 6, 2012 Copperfield again http://www.scribd.com/doc/115628889/EBIX-If-the-SEC-Cometh-the-SEC-Will-Findeth-or-so-we-suspect lol copperfield. Haven't seen it on seekingalpha yet. Where did you see it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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