hockey player on ebix

6. On the unbilled receivables question, it seems that the company is properly accounting for these. As

a refresher, Unearned Revenue is a Balance Sheet account, appearing on the liability side.

Unearned revenue can be created if a payment is received for work yet to be completed, or for

billings... MoreSentiment: Strong Buy

o 5 users liked this posts users disliked this posts 0

o Reply

Gotham City, House of Cards...

by hockeyplyr12 • 2 hours 32 minutes ago

From an analyst at a well respected $11B hedge fund manager who has particular expertise in

accounting in Singapore and accounting in general. He said the accounting was perfectly normal in

his view and even noted that Google has 8 Singapore registered subs but mentions none of them in

their 10-K.... MoreSentiment: Strong Buy

Reply to EBIX Has Negative Worth

by newoldtimer •2 hours 53 minutes ago

hockeyplyr12 • 2 hours 49 minutes ago

Particularly with regards to their option trading a few weeks ago. Hearing this from a reliable source.

Gotham's twitter has gone quiet as well.Sentiment: Strong Buy

o Reply

They looked at the financials of individual subsidiaries. To get to the consolidated financials, which

we see through the SEC, they need a consolidating or reconciliation worksheet which shows what

the intercompany transactions are and how they net out. No one has those but the company. And

Gotham...MoreSentiment: Strong Buy

Reply to Report: "CFO Robert Kerris Says Company is Not the Subject of Any Investigation Related to Statements in Seeking Alpha Article "

by rrryahoo •3 hours ago

hockeyplyr12 • 3 hours ago

I have not seen a single person that agrees with the substance of what Gotham laid out in their

report. Not a single one is supporting the claim that $65m of cash slipped out of the company. No

one is supporting the other claims either.Sentiment: Strong Buy

Reply to Previous short attacks...

by gzq_88 •3 hours ago



o Reply

This one is particularly shady. I went through the whole report and I don't think I found a single solid

point they made. What they did do is embarrass themselves and destroy their own credibility. Not

knowing about intercompany transactions and how they net out. This is bush league stuff. I

am... MoreSentiment: Strong Buy

Reply to Net Tangible Assets Per Share

by stock_animal •4 hours ago



o Reply

Are you an idiot? Why would this company have a large book value? From all the factories and

buildings they don't own? This is a software company. There aren't many "tangible" assets. The

assets are in the IP. And given the fact that this company acquires a lot of other software

companies, it shows... MoreSentiment: Strong Buy

Reply to Further MMGT Response.

by joej778 •5 hours ago



o Reply

Lawsuit time. Should be fun.Sentiment: Strong Buy

Reply to Ebix Debotury at Noon

by r3m32002 •6 hours ago



o Reply

Lawsuit likely to be filed against Gotham and Copperfield Reply to

Hockeyplyr Please Submit an Article to SeekingAlpha

by islandtefl •7 hours ago



o Reply

Thanks man. And I don't mind the shares at these prices. Nice bargain. I presume Robin will buy

back a monster amount. There will be others giving a response on SA. They will probably say

basically what I have said. Gotham has really embarrassed themselves for people who really know

how to dig into... MoreSentiment: Strong Buy

Reply to Weak Response

by gantor50 •7 hours ago



o Reply

Robin's weak response is Machiavellian. It's brilliant. I'm loving it.Sentiment: Strong Buy

Reply to The Truth About Gotham City Research, Part II

by hockeyplyr12 •16 hours ago

hockeyplyr12 • 7 hours ago Flag


o Reply

Bump...Sentiment: Strong Buy

Bump...Sentiment: Strong Buy

Reply to The Truth About Gotham City Research, Part III




o Reply

No, they can be used at the parent level. There is just an annual limit on the NOL of an acquired

company (called the long-term tax-exempt rate) so it would take longer to reap the full benefits.Sentiment: Strong Buy

Reply to Ebix response

by dk1949 •9 hours ago



o Reply

History has shown, the bigger the fraud, the stronger the retaliation from the attacked company.

Given how soft Robin's responses have been, I think it speaks pretty highly of his confidence in the

business.Sentiment: Strong Buy


o Reply

Robin Raina's shares of EBIX...

by hockeyplyr12 • 9 hours ago

Remember when Copperfield / Gotham said Robin sold most of his shares? Remember that? Most

of his shares...gone...he sold them...they knew this...they had it all figured out...they are so smart

and honest. Well, how about that SEC filing on 2/20? How many shares had Robin sold? ZERO.

What do you think of Copperfield / Gotham's credit now? They are losers. And they are dumb. Dumb

losers. lol LessSentiment: Strong Buy

Reply to Crickets

by soooverylucky •9 hours ago



o Reply

Will take them some time. But expect a massive share buyback and lawsuits on these guys at

Copperfield and Gotham.Sentiment: Strong Buy

Reply to The Truth About Gotham City Research, Part I




o Reply

Actually, I take something back. The only year that shows unrealized gains/losses is 2009. And 2011

is the only one that shows Part XI Reconciliation of Net Assets, so the IRS must have added it. The

discrepancy is laid out in this new part, it just doesn't describe what it is. I speculate it has to do with

unrealized gains/losses plus something else that is reasonable. LessSentiment: Strong Buy

Reply to "Related Company" = Intercompany, not Related Party.




o Reply

The point of this is that the intercompany loan was not a problem for them to do. They had more

than enough cash. Gotham tries to point you to "tangible assets" and says look, they don't have any

tangible book value, how could this be, how could they do this? Because they have a lot of cash,

clowns. What does tangible book value really mean for a tech company anyway? What assets do

you expect them to have? No factories, no buildings. It's all IP. You can't look at tangible book value

of EBIX the same way you would look at it in a manufacturing company. What is wrong with

Gotham? Are they just idiots? LessSentiment: Strong Buy





o Reply

One other thing to note. Gotham is concerned about this loan and thinks there needs to be an arm's

length negotiation. Singapore’s tax legislation does not contain a specific provision stipulating the

use of the arm’s length principle for related party transactions, although various provisions of the

Singapore Income Tax Act (such as Sections 32 and 53) imply or refer to the concept or use of the

arm’s length principle. Even though that says related party, not intercompany, and even though

there is no provision requiring it but rather merely an implication, let's assume they did have to

provide something in terms of transfer pricing documentation. Given that the use of proceeds was

for acquisitions and thus the money went out the door in return for assets (the acquired companies),

there would be purchase agreements verifying the valuation and other materials from accountants

laying out the goodwill and intangibles acquired. And at 9% interest on the loan, that is an above

market interest rate. Most likely the loan could be settled by the assets that were acquired in some

way. I am guessing they simply got an opinion by an accountant laying this all out and saying the

loan and interest rate were fair. That is what would be standard. But what Gotham doesn't seem to

get is that the money left the company to pay for the acquisitions. LessSentiment: Strong Buy





o Reply

Let's keep a few things in mind as well. At the end of 2007, EBIX had $50m of cash in the bank as

they had raised a lot of money in 2007 to go on a buying spree in 2008. So $50m plus they raised an

additional $36.8m from stock and debt issuance in 2008. That takes them to $86.8m. They also

generated $26.8m of cash in 2008, which takes them to $113.6m. Clearly some of the money they

raised they funneled to Singapore through an intercompany loan to make payments to the acquirers,

which is standard operating procedure. Because it's intercompany, it gets netted out of the

consolidated financials.

One other thing to consider is a post on the Bloomberg article from David:

"An analyst at an $11B fund manager, with specific knowledge of Singapore and accounting,

confirmed that the methods used by EBIX ARE STANDARD - it's what everyone does -

intracompany loans are canceled in consolidation, to streamline financials. Using Singapore is

frequent in larger companies - so why are our knickers in a twist when a small company acts like a

sophisticated big company? That you owe the left hand $50M is not so relevant when the right hand

has the $50M. This company is a victim - and I hope Bloomberg cleans up its standards to report the

facts. Greg Farrell has failed us!" LessSentiment: Strong Buy


o Reply

"Related Company" = Intercompany, not Related Party.


This is what Gotham didn't pick up. Foreign countries have different ways of wording things. In this

case, they said it is a "Related Company" loan. In the U.S., we call it Intercompany. And

Intercompany transactions always cancel out in consolidated financial statements. Gotham missed

this subtle but important point. They were thinking "Related Party" as in some outside party that

EBIX may have some connection too. Nope. Doesn't that make Gotham look pretty silly? Their

whole thesis goes up in smoke. And their attack on Robin's charitable foundation is despicable. They

know about Part XI added to the 2011 IRS filing. They know unrealized gains/losses are most likely

the culprit. But their goal is to mislead. They are the liars, not Robin. LessSentiment: Strong Buy





o Reply

- E-Z Data’s IP was transferred to Singapore yet Raina says “No US IP has been transferred to any

other country.”

Who said E-Z Data’s IP was in the U.S.? They probably had the same offshore arrangement EBIX

does. It may have consolidated into E-Z Data’s parent company in the U.S., but the IP was likely

held offshore. Like most other tech companies like this. So Robin was likely correct with that

statement.

- Ebix’s Singapore and India subsidiaries’ financial statements for 2011 remain unavailable.

Who cares? I doubt they are mandatory anyways. Who would force them to file them? Not the SEC.

The SEC is going to make sure every single publicly traded company files statements in every

foreign country where they have subsidiaries? The question answers itself: no. So it is unimportant.

- Core business is declining, tax rate is rising, and goodwill write-offs and debt maturities are

looming.

Core business is not declining, although they don’t have a lot of organic growth. Never have, never

will. See my “What does EBIX do?” post to understand this more. And also to understand how their

acquisition strategy works, how it builds value, etc. Regarding tax rates, they will still remain low

through 2015 at least, and they still have lots of NOLs. Has Gotham ever once mentioned NOLs?

Goodwill write-offs loom only in Gotham’s mind. But who cares anyways? It’s non cash. And debt

maturities are scaring Gotham? EBIX has $83.6m of debt vs. cash of $31m and cash flow of $75m.

$11.6m is due within a year. Big deal. $71.5m is due in 1-3 years. One, they have a lot of cash and

cash flow. Two, they can always refinance or do a number of other things. EBIX has a perfect track

record of paying off debt and they have a strong balance sheet and a lot cash flow.

- The Robin Raina Foundation’s IRS filings are full of material accounting irregularities.

Wrong, they are not “full” of material accounting irregularities. Only in Gotham’s twisted mind. The

IRS filings before 2011 do not have the Part XI, Reconciliation of Net Assets included in the filings.

Presumably they weren’t required to include it because it’s just a form they get from the IRS

anyways. They fill out what’s required. And in 2011 the IRS added that new Part. It appears the

major discrepancy is unrealized gains/losses. That is why things didn’t tie perfectly before 2011.

Case closed. More examples of Gotham trying to mislead you.

- Raina misrepresented his foundation’s spending by 300+%.

Robin said in a given year the Robin Raina Foundation will spend about $2m. That is not true. Robin

exaggerated on that one. There is some chance it could be true because we don’t know how much

the RRCT spends, but it is more likely that the RRCT is funded through RRF anyways so it doesn’t

have any additional assets. What Robin did do is “contribute” $2m recently (as in the last year). So

he might have had the intention to spend more going forward since he is starting to give more. Or he

just exaggerated a bit. Regardless, these things happen. Humans do these things. His Foundation

does amazing work. It is sad that Gotham is so critical of it. LessSentiment: Strong Buy





o Reply

- 2010 Singapore intangible assets are misstated by $67 million. 2011 long-lived assets do not add

up.

See my response to the first comment above. Again, it comes down to consolidating financials and

intercompany transactions. These guys are lost because they don’t have the reconciliation

statements. Do they even know what reconciliation statements are? Probably not. Regarding long-

lived assets not tying? They aren’t off by much. Probably some shoddy work by the accountants and

human error, nothing more.

One other quick thing. These clowns are concerned that the cash only yields 1.7%-2.2%? Oh no,

you caught them Gotham! How about they are invested in safe U.S. bonds that don’t have a high

yield? Why do they have to invest in a bunch of high yield sovereign trash, because you think they

should? Clowns. And yeah, the related party loan of $80m+ in Singapore further shields taxable

income because it creates an expense. Interest expense. At…9%. $80m * 9% = $7m. Ta da! This, of

course, gets netted out in the consolidated financials. Amazing how that works!

- The 2010 & 2011 10K filings were filed before the Singapore 2010 financial statements were

signed off.

They don’t have “sign off” on the Singapore financials before filing 10Ks. The do however have to

consolidate the Singapore financials into the parent when they file with the SEC. They did this. And

again, the reconciliation statements are never shown and many things net out.

- The Confirmnet acquisition cost 30% more according to the India filings than it did according to the

SEC filings.

I am guessing this can be chalked up to a good old fashion human error. The India number of $8m is

likely wrong. The SEC filings go into a lot of detail on that transaction and the various earnout

payments.

- Ebix could not have paid for Planetsoft, without moving cash from India, unless the cash never left

the US.

Again, need reconciliation statements and much more detail, which we don’t have. Gotham assumes

the worst on not enough information, which makes them clowns. They should be embarrassed.

- Less than 5% of Singapore’s intangible assets are IPrelated, i.e. most of the assets lack economic

substance.

Regarding “intellectual property” only making up 5% of intangible assets, what a bunch of clowns.

The breakout you see on pg. 23 is exactly what you would expect to see for a technology company.

Gotham wants you to think the only way EBIX could get tax breaks for having most of its IP in

Singapore is if the IP line he points to makes up the majority of intangible assets. That’s absurd.

They should dig a little deeper and see how one gets those tax breaks. They are taking

generalizations here and misleading people. The contractual relationships make up a big part of

intangibles because that is how the accountants do things. They value the contracts which give

customers access to the IP. But saying “our IP in Singapore” is a broad term that is correct

regardless of the point Gotham is trying to make. This was a particular bad few pages for Gotham

here. They don’t know what they are talking about. LessSentiment: Strong Buy


o Reply

The Truth About Gotham City Research, Part III


- There is a $66 million undisclosed related party loan between Ebix Singapore and an unnamed

related party.

Where did the money flow? How about out the door clowns. To Telstra and other acquired

companies. I don’t know what happened, but here is what’s likely. They paid to acquire certain

companies out of a Singapore bank account (probably for some reason dealing with the IP of those

companies being transferred to Singapore). The money gets transferred to Singapore through

related-party / intercompany loans. Companies with international operations do things like this to

move money around ALL THE TIME. “No one would approve a loan to Singapore” shows how dumb

these guys are. They have no experience with this stuff. It is standard operating procedure. And at

9% interest, it seems to be beyond reasonable from an arms length perspective. Why don’t we see it

in EBIX’s SEC filings? Because this stuff gets netted out. One thing is for certain, and this I have

learned through the years, looking at subsidiary financials without the reconciliation statements is a

waste of time. Reconciliation statements are not provided at the subsidiary level, only the parent

level. And they don’t show up in parent financials because they net out in the consolidated

statements. You will lose your mind trying to figure things out without them. Or, if you are Gotham /

Copperfield, you will assume fraud is going on. Laughable. These guys are truly laughable. And

deceitful. And dishonest. Basically everything they accuse Robin of. Keep in mind the most recent

Singapore filings these clowns are looking at are from 2010. They have filed since then. Do they

have to? How about Gotham look that up? I presume they can do it by choice. Clearly they are

required to file consolidated statements with the SEC. They may not even have to file their foreign

subsidiary statements. Certainly the SEC doesn’t require them to. Again, Gotham is assuming the

worst here. Some things don’t tie. Unfortunately for Gotham….they don’t have to. The SEC filings

have to be right. And they can’t prove they aren’t.

By the way, on taxes have these clowns ever once even mentioned all the NOLs these guys have?

EBIX picked up a bunch more with the ADAM transaction. They are trying to enlighten people, but

not a single peep from these clowns on NOLs. Yeah, EBIX has a low tax rate because the IP is in

Singapore or whatever. But then the effective rate is brought down further with NOLs.

- Australian revenues are only 32% of the amounts stated in the SEC filings, according to Australian

filings.

Um, how about this geniuses. EBIX does not consolidate its Australian operations. Crazy! What, a

company consolidates each country where it has subsidiaries and then does a final consolidation for

the parent company financials? Nope, doesn’t work that way. So the filings they say for Australia did

not consolidate its subs. Riddle solved. Gotham embarrasses themselves again. LessSentiment: Strong Buy





o Reply

2011 – Revenue soars to $169m and cash flow from operations jumps to an unbelievable $71.3m,

up from -$13.3m right before Robin joined the company. It doesn’t get much more impressive than

that. They acquired ADAM for stock, although EBIX received a payment of $3.5m from ADAM for

whatever reason (Gotham disregards). They also acquired Health Connect Systems for $17.9m for a

net amount spent on acquisitions of $14.6m. They raise $6.8m from a line of credit and $16.3m from

a term loan while repaying $6.4m of the term loan by the end of year. Then they proceeds to buy

back a staggering $63.7m of common stock and settle $6.8m of convertible debt. They end the year

with about $25m of cash.

2012 YTD – Revenue is at $145.3m ($194m annualized) and cash flow from operations is $54m

($72m annualized). They purchase BSI, Taimma, Fintechnix, Planetsoft ($34.1m), TriSystems and

make earnout payments for MCN, Curepet and ConfirmNet for a total amount of $57.6m. They

finance this through raising $6.1m from a line of credit and $45m from a term loan. They pay off

$17.1m from a prior term loan and they buy back $15.2m of stock. They also institute a dividend.

They end Sept. 2012 with more than $30m of cash.

So what does Gotham / Copperfield want you to believe? That this company has some sort of cash

flow problem. They do not. They generate a tremendous amount of cash. Sure, they have used

equity and debt to finance acquisitions. But that is for growth. If they didn’t make another acquisition,

the cash account would sit there and grow at more than $75m per year! If they only used internally

generated funds to grow, they would be much much smaller and would generate much much less

cash at this point. Instead they choose to grow. And the result? From 2002-2011, revenue has

grown at a CAGR of 33% and EPS at a staggering CAGR of 64%. Over the last five years, revenue

has grown at a CAGR of 41% and EPS at a CAGR of 45%. Cash flow from operations went from -

$13.3m in 1999 to probably about $75m this year. They have cash on hand of $31m and debt of

$83.6m for net debt of $52.6m relative to LTM EBITDA of $78m. So 0.7x debt to EBITDA. That is

healthy. And their capex is quite low. All of this to say I find it quite strange that Gotham /

Copperfield wants you to think they have a cash problem. This is a cash generating machine. Robin

has done impressive work. LessSentiment: Strong Buy





o Reply

2005 – Revenue jumps to $24.1m. Cash flow from operations doubles to $5.5m. No acquisitions

made as they pay off the $3.5m line of credit and buy back $2.7m of stock. Cash is at $6.7m.

2006 – Revenue jumps to $29.3m. Cash flow from operations drops to $4.4m driven by product

development increasing by $2m and sales & marketing increasing by $1m, both intelligent strategic

moves. Robin also acquires Finetre and Infinity for a total of $15m. He gets $11m of the financing

through a line of credit, so debt. He also paid off $1m of a previous line of credit. The rest of the

acquisition financing is from internal cash. Cash balance at the end of the year is $5m.

2007 – Revenue soars to $42.8m, obviously driven by the acquisitions. Cash flow from operations

more than triples to $15m! Robin acquires IDS for $11.3m and pays an additional $2.9m for Infinity

(presumably due to an earnout) for a total of $14.2m. Robin pays for those and builds a war chest

for deals by issuing $18.9m of common stock, raising $16.4m from a line of credit and issues $20m

of convertible debt. He ends the year with a cash position of $50m, up from $5m the year before.

Time to really start rolling up companies and generating cash. Quite a turnaround from when Robin

joined the company!

2008 – Revenue soars to $74.8m and cash flow from operations nearly doubles to $26.8m. Now that

he has built up cash, he goes on a buying spree. He pays $42.9m for Telstra, $1.1m for Periculum,

$21.4m for Acclamation and $7.3m for ConfirmNet for a total of $73m. To help pay for this, he issues

$12.5m of common stock (last time he does this), raises $9.3m from a line of credit and issues $15m

of convertible debt. On top of all this, he uses $24.2m to repurchase common stock. Presumably he

issued stock at the beginning of the year for a deal, and then by the end he bought back stock as he

saw value in it. He ends the year with $9.5m of cash, but the business is kicking off a lot by this

point. As the cash builds, he makes acquisitions. Repeat ad infinitum. A compounding machine.

2009 – Revenue jumps to $97.7m and cash flow from operations goes to $33.9m. Robin makes

$4.6m of earnout payments for past acquisitions, and spends $25.4m on EZ Data, $7.9m on Peak

Performance and $6.2m on Facts for a total of $44m for acquisitions. To finance all this, he uses

internal funds plus $25m from a new issuance of convertible debt. He ends the year with $20m of

cash. So far, Robin has done an amazing job of acquiring companies, increasing revenue and cash

flow, increasing EPS all while using internally generated funds and outside financing. Again, EPS is

increasing at a staggering clip, so all is good. He has made prudent decisions.

2010 – Revenue jumps to $132.2m and cash flow from operations goes to $52.8m. Wow. Robin

makes smaller acquisitions including MCN, Trades Monitor, Connective Technologies, USIX and e-

Trek for a total of $15m. He also spends $3m on ConfirmNet’s earnout bringing the grand total to

$18m for acquisitions on the year. He raises $10.2m from a term loan and $1.9m from a line of

credit, and then he pays off $5m of the term loan, buys back $10.7m of common stock and settles

$22.5m of convertible debt. He ends the year with nearly $30m of cash. If there is one thing that is

certain, it’s that Robin is a very talented guy.LessSentiment: Strong Buy


o Reply

The Truth About Gotham City Research, Part II


This part will be fun! Refer to page 36 of Gotham’s report. How scary is that top chart? So scary, I’m

shaking in my boots! What a joke. They have beclowned themselves with this one. From the

beginning…

1999 – EBIX is a company with $12.5m of revenue. Cash flow from operations was -$13.3m, so a

train wreck. Robin has not joined the company yet. The company raises $23m through warrants to

stay alive (can’t issue debt when you don’t make money). So ownership was diluted. And they were

then ok from a cash position. Gotham disregards this fact and cumulates the cash flow to scare you.

By the end of 2011, their misleading cumulative cash flow number is -$14.6m, of which -$14.3m

comes from 1999. Before Robin arrived. And not including the cash raised through equity.

2000 – Robin arrives to try and fix the company. Revenues drop to $11.8m, but cash flow from

operations was only -$7.7m. Woo hoo! It’s a start. Company raises another $4.4m of cash warrants,

and thus dilutes equity to survive. No acquisitions made as Robin works on rehabilitating the

company.

2001 – Revenue ticks up to $12.8m and cash flow from operations drops to -$3.2m. Robin must

have some magic! $6.9m was raised through the issuance of common stock. No acquisitions made.

Equity diluted further as Robin tries to build up a war chest to purchase companies.

2002 – Revenue stagnates at $12.7m, but cash flow from operations drops further to -$0.7m. Clearly

Robin is very talented to pull out of the death spiral the company was in. No dilutive events needed

in 2002! Cash position builds to $5m. Still no acquisitions made.

2003 – Revenue moves up to $14.4m. Cash flow from operations goes positive to $3.3m. Still no

acquisitions made, but cash position builds to nearly $8m. Impressive turnaround so far? To say the

least. Gotham sneers at what is actually an amazing performance by Robin.

2004 – Revenue jumps to $20m. Cash flow from operations drops to $2.8m. Robin makes his first

acquisitions, spending $8.2m to acquire Heart and Lifelink. To help finance those purchases, they

raise $3.5m from a line of credit (someone will give them credit now!) and issue $3m of stock. The

rest is funded with internal cash. They weren’t able to integrate the acquisitions right away, so

expenses jumped on them before synergies and outsourcing could increase margins. Expenses for

product development doubled. G&A jumps as they bring in talented executives to pursue an

aggressive acquisition / growth strategy. Cash is at $8.8m. LessSentiment: Strong Buy


o Reply

What does EBIX do?


What is it that EBIX does? Well, Robin realized the life insurance tech space was highly fragmented.

Big insurers like Metlife had contracts with many different vendors for CRM management, agency

software, policy administration, the list goes on and on. Robin said hey, why don’t I do a roll up of all

these different vendors so I can provide a one-stop shop to customers? That’s what he’s doing. The

larger EBIX becomes, the more attractive it is from a customer standpoint because of its one-stop

shop appeal. And presumably at some point, EBIX could even get decent pricing power from the

strategy. Not yet, but down the road. Regarding the acquisition strategy, Robin is a VERY disciplined

buyer. He doesn’t overpay. He is extremely savvy when it comes to deals. Anyone who has ever

called him about buying a company (which I have done a number of times) knows this. Here is the

other cool thing about EBIX. He outsources the programmers to India. Programmers are a huge

expense, especially in the U.S., and thus this move leads to great margins. He also does other

things to cut costs, and he takes advantage of synergies. Do the companies he acquires grow a lot?

Nope. Not really. They are small players without any pricing power. It is such a fragmented space,

and changing vendors is a pain for customers, so it is difficult for the little guys to grow any

substantial amount whether they are a part of EBIX or not. And that’s fine. Robin acquires them, cuts

costs drastically as stated above, and he ends up with a great investment. Think of it like this:

Target company:

Revenue – $10m

EBITDA – $2m

EBITDA margin – 20%

What would Robin pay? Maybe about 7x EBITDA, or $14m if you’re lucky. So let’s say he acquires

it. Pays $14m cash. Then he outsources the programmers, realizes other synergies (so target

company CEO, CFO, Head of HR, etc. are fired, target headquarters is eliminated, etc.) and he ends

up with $4m of EBITDA instead of $2m. EBITDA margins of the target are now 40%. But remember

he only paid $14m? So given pro forma EBITDA of $4m, he only paid 3.5x EBITDA. Pretty

impressive! And Robin does this over and over. Is there a lot of organic growth of the acquired

companies? Some. Not much. But who cares. Frankly, it isn’t the point. Paying 3.5x EBITDA is the

point. He keeps rolling up these players, does the “international arbitrage” if you will with the

programmers, and the cash flow grows more and more. More cash for acquisitions. Which increases

cash still further. Robin has build a disciplined compounding machine. LessSentiment: Strong Buy





o Reply

Robin is doing God’s work. But not to Gotham. They find fraud under every rock. Questionable

spending behind every good deed. The real fraudsters are Gotham aka Copperfield. My guess? This

clown used to work at EBIX and got fired by Robin due to poor performance.Sentiment: Strong Buy





o Reply

Thanks to the foundation's constant financial and moral support, seventy two (72) of these children

are today finishing Masters in various subjects with the Delhi University, while studying in the top

schools in Delhi Each of these kids has been given a computer with a scanner by the foundation to

support their education (so that they could scan books into a computer and have the laws software

read it out for them) oServants of People Society Med-Aid Project RRF has donated one medical

Ambulance to Grameen Seva Kendra run by Servants of the People Society (Founded by Lala

Lajpat Rai, the famous Indian freedom fighter in 1921), for rural areas around Delhi This ambulance

today has Doctors traveling four times a week to far-flung villages around Delhi city, to meet the

medical needs of the needy children and poor citizens in these villages.” LessSentiment: Strong Buy

The women run a joint cooperative movement and loan money to each other as also support each

other through thick and thin, in a democratic manner oRaina-Prayas UNDP Empowerment Program

The Raina Prayas joint venture has almost teamed up to provide vocational

training, embroidery and stitching training to a few hundred mothers of the slum dweller children of

Bawana, to help them seek sources of employment oRaina-Prayas Micro credit Finance The Raina

Prayas joint venture provides micro-credit finance to slum dwellers in Bawana district of Delhi, to

help them become independent and start some occupation that requires some initial capital "Blind

Aid Project (For Boys) RRF has sponsored 119 blind children in the age group of 17 years to 23

years in Delhi, in terms of helping them become completely independent financially RRF pays for the

graduation studies, hostel fees, books, clothes, food etc for each of these fifty children, who are

studying at present in eminent schools like St Stephens, Ramjas, Hindu, Kirori Mal etc in Delhi LessSentiment: Strong Buy





o Reply

“The Robin Raina Foundation (RRF) donated money to the Robin Raina Charitable Trust, SCALE

and RRF Slum project to support a number of charity projects in India, namely -DELHI,

INDIAoRaina-Prayas School RRF and Prayas, one of the largest charities in India have partnered

together and adopted 800 children belonging to slum areas, in Bawana in North West Delhi, India

The project is housed in an eleven room school facility equipped with computers, library, television,

Water filter, refrigerator and class room facilities The school provides breakfast, lunch, clothing, toys,

medical care, picnics, and extra-curricular activities in addition to quality education to the children

oRaina-Shine School RRF and Shine (a charity started by the Hindustan Times newspaper) have

partnered together and adopted 650 children belonging to slum areas, in Ghijor village in Noida,

India The project involves a two floor school housed in an twelve room school facility equipped with

computers, library, television, Water filter, refrigerator and class room facilities The school provides

food, clothing, toys, medical care, picnics, and extra-curricular activities in addition to quality

education to the children oRaina-Prayas Self Help Group In Bawana itself, the Raina Prayas joint

venture has set up twenty self help groups comprising a total of 600 slum dweller women with a view

to provide them empowerment in terms of education, co-operative financing, legal and social support

to fight exploitation LessSentiment: Strong Buy





o Reply

What Gotham doesn’t like is that beginning of year net assets + current year revenue less expenses

does not equal end of year net assets. Fine. Where do unrealized gains/losses of foundation assets

play in this? Maybe Gotham should think about that. That is part of the explanation. In the 2011

documents, they start taking unrealized gains into account. For whatever reason the prior year

documents do not list it specifically. It doesn’t mean the end of year net assets numbers are wrong,

which Gotham implies. It just means there isn’t enough info to reconcile it. The 2011 document also

adds a new section, Part XI Reconciliation of Net Assets. Ta da! This is what’s been missing from

prior years and it lists the discrepancy. It takes you to Schedule O but doesn’t explain what the

$320k number is. Regardless, a reasonable person can conclude there are legitimate reasons for all

this. Not Gotham. They conclude fraud, criminality, etc. Pretty disingenuous of them if you ask me.

Ok, so let’s see how Gotham has analyzed the expenses. Let’s look at 2009. Gotham says ‘parties,

shows & other admin expenses’ are $40k (Robin is partying it up!) and funds moved to the Robin

Raina Charitable Trust are $590k. This adds to $630k of “questionable spending” in Gotham’s eyes.

So how big was the party for $40k? Well, the document says the $40k was for…wait for it…wait for

it: TRAVEL. Guess what? It costs a lot to fly back and forth to India to do charity work. This is a

reasonable expense amount to a reasonable person, but “questionable spending” to Gotham. How

disingenuous is that? And what about the $590k going to the RRCT? What does the RRCT do

anyways, have more parties? $590k went to the RRCT (“questionable spending” according to

Gotham), $40k went to SCALE (Gotham appears content with this) and $10.3k went to the Robin

Raina Foundation Slum Project (Gotham appears content with this). Here is an explanation of what

they are doing with the money: LessSentiment: Strong Buy


o Reply

The Truth About Gotham City Research, Part I


Let's take a look at some of their work to see how much integrity THEY have. They certainly say

Robin has none, so presumably they do? We shall see. Let’s start with their analysis of the Robin

Raina Foundation. The relevant documents can be found if you go to Foundation Center website

and click on Find Funders. There is a 990 Finder link. Go to that and type in Robin Raina

Foundation. LessSentiment: Strong Buy

Reply to David Collins Responds to SA

by dmillard90 •Feb 21, 2013 5:13 PM



o Reply

Should be interesting to see what he says.Sentiment: Strong Buy

Reply to Copperfield Research

by hockeyplyr12 •Feb 8, 2013 11:46 AM

hockeyplyr12 • Feb 8, 2013 4:40 PM


o Reply

Simmer down, squirt. I have some information they overlooked. Reply to

Copperfield Research




o Reply

I have not heard from them. Maybe they don't read the boards. I could provide some insight they

don't currently have. Reply to





o Reply

hockeyplyr12 at yahooo 0 users liked this posts users disliked this posts 3

o Reply


by hockeyplyr12 • Feb 8, 2013 11:46 AM

How would I go about getting a hold of them? I know EBIX quite well and have worked with Robin in

the past. I have some knowledge and information they might be interested in. Reply to

DB says the BK word

by mwb3210 •Nov 19, 2012 2:00 PM

hockeyplyr12 • Nov 19, 2012 2:49 PM


o Reply

And to make matters worse, China is about to implode the Japanese economy. Should be worse

than we've seen happen to a country in a generation or two. And that won't help the Chinese

economy either. Reply to

Buying some

by audiophul •Nov 15, 2012 4:44 PM

hockeyplyr12 • Nov 17, 2012 11:32 PM


o Reply

The 65% stake in ORIG is illusory. They can't make it through without selling that down, or doing an

ATM, or both. GE got rid of the DRYS cross default provisions with ORIG for a reason as well. I put

chance of bankruptcy at 65%-75% if the world slips into another recession soon. Shipping

companies will start going bankrupt, ship values will tank more than they already have, and

additional collateral will need to be provided as loan-to-value ratios get worse. Of course it will be

highly tradeable between now and then.Less

Reply to Buying some

by audiophul •Nov 15, 2012 4:44 PM

hockeyplyr12 • Nov 16, 2012 12:27 AM


o Reply

They will have a liquidity problem. The world economy is about to slip into another recession. Reply to

if it acts like a merger, looks like a merger, smells like a merger...

by mmciii2000 •Oct 15, 2012 4:31 AM

hockeyplyr12 • Oct 15, 2012 4:44 AM


o Reply

YupSentiment: Strong Buy

Reply to if it acts like a merger, looks like a merger, smells like a merger...

by mmciii2000 •Oct 15, 2012 4:31 AM



o Reply

I'm guessing they will use some of it to go after MetroPCS.Sentiment: Strong Buy

Reply to The only things you need to know about the deal

by thefrenchplague •Oct 15, 2012 4:26 AM



o Reply

Arbs don't wait for closing to move in.Sentiment: Strong Buy

Reply to I don't understand

by mundeleinmike2 •Oct 15, 2012 4:17 AM



o Reply

They are purchasing $5b worth of primary shares in a PIPE type of transaction at $5.25. PIPEs are

usually done at a 5%-10% discount to whatever the stock is trading at when the deal is finalized.

Then they are buying $3b worth of convertible debt with an exercise price of $5.25. These combined

result in an $8b cash infusion. Then they offered to buy $12b of secondary shares at $7.30. Had to

go a higher price to get Sprint shareholders to agree and to prevent other buyers from swooping

in. LessSentiment: Strong Buy

Reply to I don't understand

by mundeleinmike2 •Oct 15, 2012 4:17 AM



o Reply

S is selling primary shares for $5.25. That is like doing a follow on to raise money. Basically its a

PIPE. Softbank doesn't want to pay a deal premium for that capital infusion. The $7.30 is to

purchase our secondary shares (those that trade).Sentiment: Strong Buy


o Reply

Termination Fee of $600m

by hockeyplyr12 • Oct 15, 2012 4:14 AM

Never seen one that high before.Sentiment: Strong Buy

Reply to Drybulk bulls calling for rally on Chinese stimulus were pretty much wrong.

by audiophul•Sep 26, 2012 9:13 AM

hockeyplyr12 • Sep 26, 2012 2:51 PM


o Reply

"China will do eventual stimulus" should read "China will do even more stimulus then."Sentiment: Strong Buy

Reply to Drybulk bulls calling for rally on Chinese stimulus were pretty much wrong.

by audiophul•Sep 26, 2012 9:13 AM

hockeyplyr12 • Sep 26, 2012 2:50 PM


o Reply

China will do eventual stimulus. They did stimulus to have an effect. No effect, then more stimulus.

Pretty easy. And once Europe starts printing, the bottom will be in over there. Throughout history,

this has been the case with money printing. That is the bottom. And it is like heroin. Once they get a

hit, they won't get off it. The world is easing people. The U.S. is doing unlimited QE. Europe is just

about to start printing. Japan has been printing. China is doing fiscal stimulus and is going to do

more. The markets are not going to implode. Most likely... Less

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