Ebix Inc (EBIX) 2022 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Ladies and gentlemen, good morning. My name is Abby, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Ebix Inc. Annual Results Investor Conference Call. Today's conference is being recorded. (Operator Instructions)

女士們，先生們，早上好。我叫艾比，今天我將擔任你們的會議接線員。在這個時候，我想歡迎大家參加 Ebix Inc. 年度業績投資者電話會議。今天的會議正在錄製中。 （操作員說明）

Thank you. And I will now turn the conference over to Darren Joseph, Corporate Vice President. You may begin.

謝謝。我現在將會議轉交給公司副總裁 Darren Joseph。你可以開始了。

Thank you. Welcome, everyone, to Ebix Inc.'s 2022 Annual Results Earnings Conference Call. Joining me to discuss the annual results is Ebix Chairman, President and CEO, Robin Raina; President, Insurance Services, North America, Ash Sawhney; and Ebix EVP and CFO, Steve Hamil. Following our remarks, we will open the call for your questions.

謝謝。歡迎大家參加 Ebix Inc. 的 2022 年年度業績收益電話會議。與我一起討論年度業績的是 Ebix 董事長、總裁兼首席執行官 Robin Raina；北美保險服務總裁 Ash Sawhney； Ebix 執行副總裁兼首席財務官 Steve Hamil。在我們發表評論之後，我們將開始徵集您的問題。

Now let me quickly cover the safe harbor. Some of the statements that we make today are forward-looking, including, among others, statements regarding Ebix's future investments, our long-term growth and innovation, the expected performance of our businesses and our use of cash. These statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statement. Please note that these forward-looking statements reflect our opinions only as of the date of this presentation, and we undertake no obligation to revise or publicly release the results of any revision to these forward-looking statements in light of new information or future events.

現在讓我快速覆蓋安全港。我們今天發表的一些聲明是前瞻性的，其中包括關於 Ebix 未來投資、我們的長期增長和創新、我們業務的預期業績以及我們對現金的使用的聲明。這些陳述涉及許多風險和不確定性，可能導致實際結果與前瞻性陳述中預測的結果存在重大差異。請注意，這些前瞻性陳述僅反映我們截至本演示文稿之日的意見，我們沒有義務根據新信息或未來事件修改或公開發布對這些前瞻性陳述的任何修改結果。

Additional information concerning factors that could cause actual results to materially differ from those in the forward-looking statements made today are contained in our SEC filings, which list a more detailed description of the risk factors that may affect our results. Our press release announcing the 2022 full year and Q4 2022 results was issued today this morning. The audio of this investor call is also being webcast live on the web at www.ebix.com/webcast. You can look at Ebix's financials beyond what has been provided in this release on our website, www.ebix.com. The audio and the text transcript of this call will be available also on the Investor homepage of the Ebix website after 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time today.

有關可能導致實際結果與今天所做的前瞻性陳述中的結果存在重大差異的因素的更多信息包含在我們提交給美國證券交易委員會的文件中，其中列出了可能影響我們結果的風險因素的更詳細描述。今天上午發布了我們宣布 2022 年全年和 2022 年第四季度業績的新聞稿。該投資者電話會議的音頻也在 www.ebix.com/webcast 上進行網絡直播。您可以在我們的網站 www.ebix.com 上查看本新聞稿中提供的以外的 Ebix 財務信息。下午 4:00 之後，還將在 Ebix 網站的投資者主頁上提供此次通話的音頻和文本記錄。今天東部時間。

Now let me discuss the quarter and the full year. This has been a record year in terms of revenue performance for the company, with the company reporting more than $1 billion in annual revenue for the first time. Fiscal year 2022 GAAP revenues increased 6% to $1.05 billion as compared to $994.9 million in fiscal year 2021.

現在讓我討論一下季度和全年。就公司的收入表現而言，今年是創紀錄的一年，公司報告的年收入首次超過 10 億美元。 2022 財年 GAAP 收入增長 6% 至 10.5 億美元，而 2021 財年為 9.949 億美元。

On a constant currency basis, fiscal year 2022 revenues grew to $1.1 billion, an increase of approximately $113 million or 11.3% over 2021 revenues. The increase is primarily due to growth in the EBIT cash business as well as our year-over-year growth in the company's core life and annuity exchange platforms, BPO and IT outsourced services originating in India, foreign exchange business, travel business, e-learning and financial technology businesses and growth in revenues in 9 of the company's 11 major geographies.

按固定匯率計算，2022 財年收入增長至 11 億美元，比 2021 年收入增長約 1.13 億美元或 11.3%。增長主要是由於 EBIT 現金業務的增長以及我們在公司核心人壽和年金交換平台、源自印度的 BPO 和 IT 外包服務、外匯業務、旅遊業務、電子商務的同比增長。公司 11 個主要地區中的 9 個地區的學習和金融技術業務以及收入增長。

These increases were offset primarily by a decline in the EBIT cash prepaid card business besides declines in revenue within our U.S.-based consulting, employee health and wellness and health exchange businesses and the negative effect of substantial strengthening of the U.S. dollar on our revenues in the year 2022. Q4 2022 revenue decreased 4% to $255.2 million compared to $266.8 million in Q4 of 2021. The decrease is primarily due to the negative effect of the substantial strengthening of the U.S. dollar on our revenues in Q4 and 2022 as compared to the previous year.

這些增長主要被 EBIT 現金預付卡業務的下降所抵消，除了我們在美國的諮詢、員工健康和健康以及健康交換業務的收入下降，以及美元大幅走強對我們在美國的收入的負面影響。 2022 年第四季度的收入與 2021 年第四季度的 2.668 億美元相比下降了 4% 至 2.552 億美元。下降的主要原因是美元大幅走強對我們在第四季度和 2022 年的收入與之前相比產生了負面影響年。

On a constant currency basis, Q4 2022 revenues increased 5% year-over-year and would have been $23.8 million higher in the quarter, but for foreign exchange rate changes during the quarter. On a constant currency basis, 8 of the 11 major geographies worldwide had year-over-year revenue growth in Q4 2022. In Q4 2022, insurance exchange revenues worldwide decreased year-over-year by 2%, but grew around 1% on a constant currency basis. While risk compliant solutions revenue increased 14% year-over-year in the fourth quarter of 2022 and EBIT cash revenue increased 7% year-over-year in the fourth quarter of 2022.

按固定匯率計算，2022 年第四季度的收入同比增長 5%，本季度本應增加 2380 萬美元，但本季度的外匯匯率發生變化。按固定匯率計算，全球 11 個主要地區中有 8 個在 2022 年第四季度收入同比增長。2022 年第四季度，全球保險交易收入同比下降 2%，但同比增長約 1%不變的貨幣基礎。 2022 年第四季度，風險合規解決方案收入同比增長 14%，2022 年第四季度息稅前利潤現金收入同比增長 7%。

Including the prepaid gift card revenues, EBIT cash revenues increased year-over-year by 30%. Exchanges, including EBIT cash and the insurance exchanges worldwide continue to be Ebix's largest channel, accounting for 92% of our fiscal year 2022 revenues. For the 2022 fiscal year on a constant currency basis, 9 of the 11 major geographies experienced year-over-year growth in revenues. For the full year 2022 EBIT cash GAAP revenues grew 6%, RCS revenues grew 10%, while the insurance exchange revenues were essentially flat on a year-over-year basis.

包括預付禮品卡收入在內，息稅前現金收入同比增長 30%。包括 EBIT 現金和全球保險交易所在內的交易所仍然是 Ebix 最大的渠道，占我們 2022 財年收入的 92%。在 2022 財年，以固定匯率計算，11 個主要地區中有 9 個地區的收入實現了同比增長。 2022 年全年 EBIT 現金 GAAP 收入增長 6%，RCS 收入增長 10%，而保險交易所收入同比基本持平。

On a constant currency basis, insurance exchange revenues increased by 2% in 2022 as compared to 2021. On a constant currency basis, RCS revenues for fiscal year 2022 increased by 11% as compared to 2021, while EBIT cash revenues increased 14% year-over-year. On a constant currency basis, fiscal year 2022 worldwide revenues grew 11.3% over 2021 revenues.

按固定匯率計算，2022 年保險外匯收入比 2021 年增長 2%。按固定匯率計算，2022 財年 RCS 收入比 2021 年增長 11%，而 EBIT 現金收入同比增長 14%-超過一年。按固定匯率計算，2022 財年全球收入比 2021 年增長 11.3%。

I will now turn the call over to Steve.

我現在將電話轉給史蒂夫。

Thanks, Darren. The U.S. dollar strengthened against most currencies during 2022 is pretty much everyone on this call knows. After experiencing the largest quarterly negative impact from foreign exchange movements in the third quarter of 2022, the fourth quarter of '22 actually eclipsed Q3 2022.

謝謝，達倫。在 2022 年，美元兌大多數貨幣走強，這幾乎是本次電話會議的每個人都知道的。在經歷了 2022 年第三季度外匯變動帶來的最大季度負面影響之後，22 年第四季度實際上超過了 2022 年第三季度。

For the fourth quarter and fiscal year 2022, the negative impact from foreign exchange movements reduced our reported revenues by $23.8 million and $57.6 million, respectively. Q4 and full year 2022 have been the largest quarterly and year-to-date negative impact from foreign exchange movements in at least the past 8 fiscal years for Ebix. Aaron has already discussed the Q4 and fiscal year revenue figures.

對於第四季度和 2022 財年，外匯變動的負面影響使我們報告的收入分別減少了 2380 萬美元和 5760 萬美元。至少在過去 8 個財政年度中，外匯變動對 Ebix 造成的季度和年初至今最大的負面影響是 2022 年第四季度和全年。亞倫已經討論了第四季度和財政年度的收入數據。

So let me focus a little bit on the numerical drivers of those results. In 2022, the 5.5% revenue growth year-over-year was driven by growth in EBIT cashes travel, foreign exchange and outward remittance businesses, which on a combined basis grew 118% year-over-year. The BPO and IT services revenues in India grew 47% in 2022 versus 2021. Our EbixCash e-learning revenue growth was 160% in 2022. And in Latin America, our year-over-year revenue growth was 42%.

因此，讓我稍微關註一下這些結果的數字驅動因素。 2022 年，EBIT 現金旅行、外彙和匯出匯款業務的增長推動收入同比增長 5.5%，這些業務合計同比增長 118%。與 2021 年相比，2022 年印度的 BPO 和 IT 服務收入增長了 47%。我們的 EbixCash 電子學習收入在 2022 年增長了 160%。在拉丁美洲，我們的收入同比增長了 42%。

These strong growth results were offset in part by the prepaid gift card business in India, which declined 3.5% year-over-year. And I will note, generates little profit for Ebix -- and Australia had a revenue decline of 15% in 2022. About half of that was FX related based on changes in currency rates. U.S. revenues for the year decreased less than 1%, while our core life and annuity exchange revenues increased 5% year-over-year. Our consulting health exchange and EHAE [ph] revenue declines offset the solid growth in those core life and annuity exchanges.

這些強勁的增長結果被印度的預付禮品卡業務部分抵消，該業務同比下降 3.5%。我會注意到，為 Ebix 帶來的利潤微乎其微——澳大利亞在 2022 年的收入下降了 15%。其中約一半與基於貨幣匯率變化的外匯相關。美國全年收入下降不到 1%，而我們的核心人壽和年金交換收入同比增長 5%。我們的諮詢健康交流和 EHAE [ph] 收入下降抵消了這些核心人壽和年金交流的穩健增長。

Our operating income in Q4 2022 was $29.8 million. That's an 8% decrease from Q4 '21 operating income of $32.4 million and 2% lower than Q3 2022 operating income of $30.4 million. Our operating margin of 11.7% in Q4 compares to 11.8% in Q3 2022 and 12.2% in Q4 2021. The decrease year-over-year in our operating income relates primarily to increased personnel costs and rent expense, both primarily in India as well as incremental sales and marketing expenses to continue to build EbixCash brand in India.

我們在 2022 年第四季度的營業收入為 2980 萬美元。這比 21 年第四季度的營業收入 3240 萬美元減少了 8%，比 2022 年第三季度的營業收入 3040 萬美元減少了 2%。我們第四季度的營業利潤率為 11.7%，而 2022 年第三季度為 11.8%，2021 年第四季度為 12.2%。營業收入同比下降主要與人員成本和租金支出增加有關，這主要是在印度以及增加銷售和營銷費用，以繼續在印度打造 EbixCash 品牌。

Employee-related expenses for salary and benefits increased $4.1 million in Q4 2022 versus Q4 2021, while rent expense increased $3.5 million year-over-year in Q4 2022 as the company continues to reopen international airport and ports of entry locations as the negative impacts from COVID-19 subside.

與 2021 年第四季度相比，與員工相關的工資和福利支出在 2022 年第四季度增加了 410 萬美元，而租金支出在 2022 年第四季度同比增加了 350 萬美元，因為公司繼續重新開放國際機場和入境口岸，因為COVID-19 消退。

In India, our sales and marketing expenses increased by over $2.5 million in Q4 2022 as compared to Q4 2021. Excluding the impact of the prepaid gift card business, Q4 2022 operating margin was 26.4%, which compares to 26.3% in the sequential Q3 2022 quarter and 30.9% in Q4 of 2021. For fiscal year 2022, in total, our operating income was $120.3 million versus $119 million in 2021, an increase of 1.1%. But on a constant currency basis, our operating income grew by approximately 5% year-over-year for the full year 2022.

在印度，與 2021 年第四季度相比，我們在 2022 年第四季度的銷售和營銷費用增加了超過 250 萬美元。排除預付禮品卡業務的影響，2022 年第四季度的營業利潤率為 26.4%，而 2022 年第三季度為 26.3%季度和 2021 年第四季度的 30.9%。在 2022 財年，我們的營業收入總計為 1.203 億美元，而 2021 年為 1.19 億美元，增長 1.1%。但按固定匯率計算，我們的營業收入在 2022 年全年同比增長約 5%。

During the year-to-date period 2022, we had the following major cash uses $33.2 million of cash interest paid, $24 million for income-related taxes paid globally, a combined $21.5 million expended on capital expenditures and software development costs, $23.5 million used to reduce the principal outstanding on our corporate credit facility and $9.3 million for dividend payments. The company had liquidity on hand, which I -- which includes cash, cash equivalents, short-term investments and restricted cash of $136.3 million as of December 31, 2022 versus $125.2 million at 12/30/21.

在 2022 年年初至今，我們有以下主要現金用途：支付的現金利息 3320 萬美元，全球支付的所得稅相關稅款 2400 萬美元，資本支出和軟件開發成本合計 2150 萬美元，已使用 2350 萬美元減少我們公司信貸額度的未償還本金和 930 萬美元的股息支付。截至 2022 年 12 月 31 日，公司手頭有流動資金，其中包括現金、現金等價物、短期投資和受限制現金 1.363 億美元，而 2021 年 12 月 30 日為 1.252 億美元。

However, I want to note that at December 31, 2022, on that date, the company had interest and principal repayments under our credit facility due of $22.9 million, 5 million of which was principal repayment under the term loan. Because of an oversight in our agent bank, this payment was not taken from our account until the first business day of January 2023. Thus, our liquidity on hand at 12/31/22 would have been $113.4 million at the payment that affected as of 12/31 22, and that would compare to the $125.2 million at 12/31/2021.

但是，我想指出，在 2022 年 12 月 31 日，即那天，公司根據我們的信貸額度償還了 2290 萬美元的利息和本金，其中 500 萬美元是定期貸款的本金償還。由於我們代理銀行的疏忽，這筆付款直到 2023 年 1 月的第一個工作日才從我們的賬戶中提取。因此，我們在 22 年 12 月 31 日的手頭流動資金為 1.134 億美元，影響截至12/31 22，與 12/31/2021 的 1.252 億美元相比。

Our total debt on December 31, 2022, was $647.3 million, a reduction of $13 million from total debt of $660.2 million as of 12/31/21. And as I just mentioned, the debt would have been $7.5 million lower at 12/31/22, had that principal payment been processed timely. The company also paid down $5 million of principal on our debt in February of 2023 as part of the recent extension of our credit facility to mature in May 2023, and we will repay an additional $5 million under that facility on March 31, 2023.

我們在 2022 年 12 月 31 日的總債務為 6.473 億美元，比 2021 年 12 月 31 日的總債務 6.602 億美元減少了 1300 萬美元。正如我剛才提到的，如果本金支付得到及時處理，22 年 12 月 31 日的債務本可以減少 750 萬美元。公司還在 2023 年 2 月償還了 500 萬美元的債務本金，作為我們最近將信貸額度延長至 2023 年 5 月到期的一部分，我們將在 2023 年 3 月 31 日根據該貸款額外償還 500 萬美元。

Our current corporate credit facility contains 2 financial covenants, a consolidated net leverage covenant and a fixed charge coverage covenant. Our consolidated net leverage ratio was approximately 3.6x at 12/31/22 versus 4.2x at 12/31/21. So during 2022, we delevered approximately 0.6 turns. Our consolidated net leverage covenant at 12/31/22 was 4.5x. So we were comfortably under that covenant level. Our fixed charge coverage ratio was approximately 1.5x at 12/31/22 versus our covenant level of 1.25x. We were in compliance with our credit facility financial covenants at 12/31/22.

我們目前的公司信貸額度包含 2 個財務契約，一個綜合淨槓桿契約和一個固定費用覆蓋契約。我們的綜合淨槓桿率在 12/31/22 時約為 3.6 倍，而在 12/31/21 時約為 4.2 倍。因此，在 2022 年期間，我們減少了大約 0.6 輪。我們在 22 年 12 月 31 日的合併淨槓桿契約為 4.5 倍。所以我們很舒服地處於那個盟約水平之下。 22 年 12 月 31 日，我們的固定費用覆蓋率約為 1.5 倍，而我們的契約水平為 1.25 倍。我們在 22 年 12 月 31 日遵守了我們的信貸額度財務契約。

Robin will provide a further update on the efforts that are ongoing to address the impending maturity of the credit facility in May 2023 during his remarks. We are appreciative of the syndicate banks that are working with us as we continue to pursue the refinancing of our credit facility into a capital structure that is both longer in tenor and with more globally oriented investors. Ebix continues to generate significant adjusted EBITDA despite global economic stress, including inflation in a rising rate environment and lingering impacts impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic.

羅賓將在他的講話中提供進一步的最新信息，說明為解決 2023 年 5 月信貸額度即將到期而正在進行的努力。我們感謝與我們合作的銀團銀行，因為我們繼續尋求將我們的信貸額度再融資為一個期限更長且面向全球的投資者的資本結構。儘管全球經濟面臨壓力，包括利率上升環境中的通貨膨脹和 COVID-19 大流行的揮之不去的影響，但 Ebix 繼續產生顯著的調整後 EBITDA 。

In 2022, the company generated $142.8 million of EBITDA plus noncash stock comp expense. That's an increase of $3.2 million or 2% over 2021 levels. Reaching pre COVID-19 operating levels in the negatively impacted businesses is a goal we are continuing to move towards. While we saw a rebound in activity in most of these businesses beginning late in 2021, Q4 2022 revenues remain depressed from pre COVID-19 levels.

2022 年，公司產生了 1.428 億美元的 EBITDA 加上非現金股票補償費用。這比 2021 年的水平增加了 320 萬美元或 2%。在受到負面影響的企業中達到 COVID-19 之前的運營水平是我們繼續努力的目標。雖然我們看到大多數這些企業的活動從 2021 年底開始出現反彈，但 2022 年第四季度的收入仍然低於 COVID-19 之前的水平。

Q4 2022 revenues from travel, foreign exchange, remittance financial technologies and e-learning businesses at EbixCash were 27% lower than Q4 2019 revenues, which is the last quarter prior to the beginning of the negative impact from COVID-19 on our company. However, just 1 year ago, these business lines were approximately 53% lower than Q4 2019 revenues.

EbixCash 2022 年第四季度來自旅遊、外匯、匯款金融技術和電子學習業務的收入比 2019 年第四季度的收入低 27%，這是 COVID-19 對我們公司產生負面影響之前的最後一個季度。然而，就在一年前，這些業務線的收入比 2019 年第四季度的收入低約 53%。

In 2022, we made significant progress in returning to pre COVID-19 operating levels, and our goal is to return quarterly revenues for these businesses to those pre COVID-19 levels in late 2023 or early 2024. While we have some important hurdles to clear in the coming months, most notably changing our capital structure to address the corporate credit facility maturity.

2022 年，我們在恢復到 COVID-19 之前的運營水平方面取得了重大進展，我們的目標是在 2023 年底或 2024 年初將這些業務的季度收入恢復到 COVID-19 之前的水平。雖然我們有一些重要的障礙需要清除在接下來的幾個月中，最顯著的是改變我們的資本結構以解決企業信貸額度的到期問題。

We continue to believe that the market positions we have obtained through years of service to our customers will, over the long term, lead to a strong and successful company that will provide value to all of our stakeholders. Our employees work hard every day to deliver for our customers, and I want to thank the over 10,000 folks that really define Ebix to the marketplaces that we serve.

我們仍然相信，從長遠來看，我們通過多年為客戶提供服務而獲得的市場地位將導致一家強大而成功的公司，為我們所有的利益相關者提供價值。我們的員工每天都在努力工作，為我們的客戶提供服務，我要感謝超過 10,000 名真正將 Ebix 定義為我們所服務的市場的人。

Finally, Ebix's Form 10-K will be filed later today. And I would like to now turn the call over to the President of our North American insurance businesses, Ash Sawhney, for his remarks on our fourth quarter and fiscal year 2022 operations.

最後，Ebix 的 10-K 表格將於今天晚些時候提交。我現在想把電話轉給我們北美保險業務總裁 Ash Sawhney，聽取他對我們第四季度和 2022 財年運營的評論。

Thank you, Darren and Steve. I will now talk about the Q4 2022 and full year 2022 analysis of the North American business. The Q4 2022 revenue was up 6% compared to Q3 of 2022 for North America. This was enabled by a cyclical increase in our medical certification business and the strong performance of our life and annuity exchanges.

謝謝你們，達倫和史蒂夫。我現在將談談北美業務的 2022 年第四季度和 2022 年全年分析。與北美的 2022 年第三季度相比，2022 年第四季度的收入增長了 6%。這是由於我們的醫療認證業務的周期性增長以及我們的人壽和年金交易所的強勁表現。

On a full year basis, the 2022 revenue for North America was relatively flat compared to 2021, while our worldwide insurance exchange business grew by around 2% in 2022 as compared to 2021. In 2022, our core insurance exchange, which constitute roughly 70% of our revenue continued to grow to show steady growth. The life, annuity, property and casualty and health exchanges were up 3.5% in aggregate.

從全年來看，北美 2022 年的收入與 2021 年相比相對持平，而我們的全球保險交換業務在 2022 年與 2021 年相比增長了約 2%。2022 年，我們的核心保險交換業務約佔 70%我們的收入繼續增長，呈現穩定增長。人壽、年金、財產和傷亡及健康保險交易總額增長 3.5%。

The Q4 revenue in aggregate was down 3% compared to Q4 of 2021, largely on account of softening in the Medical certification division. This group was up 50% sequentially in Q4, but down 11% over the same quarter in 2021.

與 2021 年第四季度相比，第四季度的總收入下降了 3%，這主要是由於醫療認證部門的疲軟。該組在第四季度環比增長 50%，但比 2021 年同季度下降 11%。

I will now provide a more granular analysis of our various business units. The life and annuity exchanges, including life and annuity order entry, illustration, CRM and underwriting exchanges were up 4% in Q4 compared to Q3, up 7% in Q4 compared to the same quarter in '21 and up 5% on a full year basis comparing 2022 to 2021. The annuity exchange, which is the largest of all our exchanges, continued its strong run.

我現在將對我們的各個業務部門進行更細緻的分析。人壽和年金交易，包括人壽和年金訂單輸入、說明、客戶關係管理和承保交易，第四季度與第三季度相比增長 4%，與 2021 年同期相比增長 7%，全年增長 5%比較 2022 年和 2021 年的基礎。我們所有交易所中最大的年金交易所繼續保持強勁勢頭。

Revenues were up 8% in Q4 '22 sequentially up 23% compared to Q4 of '21. And on a full year basis, the revenue was up 20%. Q4 '22 was the highest revenue quarter on record. 2022 was the highest year on record and November 2022 was the highest month on record. Total number of carriers now exceeds 57. Total transactions processed exceeded 580,000 and the total premiums processed for the platform now exceeds 98 billion in 2022. These were all record numbers.

與 21 年第四季度相比，22 年第四季度的收入增長了 8%，環比增長了 23%。從全年來看，收入增長了 20%。 22 年第四季度是有記錄以來收入最高的季度。 2022 年是有記錄以來最高的一年，2022 年 11 月是有記錄以來最高的月份。運營商總數現已超過57家。處理的總交易量超過580,000筆，到2022年平台處理的保費總額現已超過980億。這些都是創紀錄的數字。

Approximately half of the annuity growth in '22 came from increased business from our existing customers and the other half came from new clients added to the platform over the past 18 months. We added CNO in Ohio National to our client list in Q4. Our life exchanges comprised of life order entry, illustration and CRM were collectively up 2% in Q4 compared to Q3 and also up 2% for the year.

22 年年金增長的大約一半來自我們現有客戶的業務增長，另一半來自過去 18 個月添加到平台的新客戶。我們在第四季度將 Ohio National 的 CNO 添加到我們的客戶列表中。與第三季度相比，我們的生活交流包括生活訂單輸入、插圖和 CRM，在第四季度共同增長了 2%，全年也增長了 2%。

The platforms collectively processed over $50 billion in premiums. The number of carriers on our various life platforms now exceeds 100, and the number of distributors exceeds 100,000. We ran over 30 million illustrations on the live platform in 2022 and processed over 1.3 million applications. These are all record numbers.

這些平台總共處理了超過 500 億美元的保費。各類生活平台運營商數量超過100家，分銷商數量超過10萬家。 2022年，我們在直播平台上運行了超過3000萬張插圖，處理了超過130萬份申請。這些都是創紀錄的數字。

The underwriting division was flat in Q3 compared to -- sorry, in Q4 compared to Q3. On a full year basis, the business was down 5%. We are seeing signs of the division starting to recover from the resource constraints discussed previously. We have added several new capabilities to the platform, which will provide incremental revenue streams in the future. These include a reinsurance module, processing for annuities and processing capabilities for Bermuda and Singapore businesses.

與第三季度相比，承保部門在第三季度持平 - 抱歉，第四季度與第三季度相比。從全年來看，該業務下降了 5%。我們看到該部門開始從之前討論的資源限制中恢復過來的跡象。我們為該平台添加了幾項新功能，這些功能將在未來提供增量收入流。其中包括再保險模塊、年金處理以及百慕大和新加坡企業的處理能力。

Last year, we embarked on an effort to restructure and reposition the Ebix CRM division. More specifically, we increased our focus on the retail market segment, particularly in the mid-tier BGA segment. We repositioned the platform as a one-stop gateway for advisers to conduct all their business such as managing customer data and communication, submitting new business, getting case status updates, managing commissions and conducting other day-to-day functions. The platform is now tightly integrated with all Ebix tools, including coating, illustration and order entry.

去年，我們著手重組和重新定位 Ebix CRM 部門。更具體地說，我們更加關注零售市場領域，尤其是中端 BGA 領域。我們將該平台重新定位為一站式門戶，供顧問開展所有業務，例如管理客戶數據和通信、提交新業務、獲取案例狀態更新、管理佣金和執行其他日常功能。該平台現在與所有 Ebix 工具緊密集成，包括塗層、插圖和訂單輸入。

In addition, the platform provides integration with over 74 third-party systems, enabling a vast ecosystem accessible through a single gateway. We are starting to see a turnaround in this business. Retail sales were up 21% in '22 compared to 2021. Revenue was up 3% and attrition rates were reduced by 50% during the same period. Our health benefit administration business was down 8% sequentially in Q4 of '22, largely because Q3 left a high watermark in terms of quarterly revenue. The business was flat in Q4 compared to the same quarter the year before.

此外，該平台還提供與超過 74 個第三方系統的集成，支持通過單一網關訪問龐大的生態系統。我們開始看到這項業務出現好轉。與 2021 年相比，22 年的零售額增長了 21%。同期收入增長了 3%，流失率降低了 50%。我們的健康福利管理業務在 22 年第四季度連續下降了 8%，這主要是因為第三季度在季度收入方面留下了高水位。與去年同期相比，第四季度的業務持平。

And on a full year basis was up 3.5%, delivering the highest yearly revenue this group has ever recorded. This business continues to generate steady revenue with over 77 large payer customers servicing over 43,000 employer groups and covering over 9 million lives. We are on track to rebound to onboard AON in Q2 of this year, which will provide an uptick in our subscription revenue.

全年增長 3.5%，創造了該集團有史以來最高的年收入。該業務繼續產生穩定的收入，超過 77 個大型付款客戶為超過 43,000 個雇主團體提供服務，覆蓋超過 900 萬人的生活。我們有望在今年第二季度反彈至 AON，這將增加我們的訂閱收入。

Our medical certification business Oakstone was up 50% sequentially in Q4 compared to Q3 of 2022. This cyclical spike is expected as the division derives approximately 1/3 of its business in Q4. Compared to Q4 '21, the revenue was down 11%. This decline was partly due to the changing dynamics in the gift card incentives that are bundled with the subscription offers and partly due to the life cycle decline of the audio content product, which typically gets 60% of the revenue in the first half of a 4-year life cycle. That product happens to be in the second half of its life cycle.

與 2022 年第三季度相比，我們的醫療認證業務 Oakstone 在第四季度環比增長了 50%。預計這種週期性飆升是因為該部門在第四季度約佔其業務的 1/3。與 21 年第四季度相比，收入下降了 11%。這種下降部分是由於與訂閱優惠捆綁在一起的禮品卡激勵措施的動態變化，部分是由於音頻內容產品的生命週期下降，通常在 4 的上半年獲得 60% 的收入-年的生命週期。該產品恰好處於其生命週期的後半段。

We are working on several initiatives to increase revenue, including targeting products towards younger physicians and also adding new mobile-enabled capabilities. Oakstone remains a strong brand in the continuing medical education space with over 50 years of history. We service 2 out of every 10 physicians in 30-plus medical and dental specialties. Our content is created in partnership with leading medical institutions such as Harvard Medical, Cleveland Clinic, Brigham and Women's, Dana-Farber, John Hopkins and 20 other such institutions. The consulting business was up 3% in Q4 compared to Q3 and down 2% for the full year.

我們正在採取多項措施來增加收入，包括針對年輕醫生的產品以及增加新的移動功能。 Oakstone 擁有超過 50 年的歷史，在繼續醫學教育領域仍然是一個強大的品牌。我們為 30 多個醫學和牙科專業的每 10 位醫生中的 2 位提供服務。我們的內容是與領先的醫療機構合作創建的，例如哈佛醫學院、克利夫蘭診所、布萊根婦女醫院、達納法伯醫院、約翰霍普金斯大學和其他 20 家此類機構。與第三季度相比，第四季度諮詢業務增長 3%，全年下降 2%。

As was outlined in Q3 of '22, we are now packaging our consulting services for our new and existing exchange customers. Packaged under a program called accelerated go-to-market AGM, we now offer strategy, product design, onboarding support, testing and training services to our exchange customers. Most new clients will be availing of this service, including CNO and Ohio National who was signed on in Q4, and we'll be receiving several of these services in the coming quarters.

正如 22 年第 3 季度所述，我們現在正在為我們的新老交易所客戶提供諮詢服務。根據稱為加速上市 AGM 的計劃打包，我們現在為我們的交易所客戶提供戰略、產品設計、入職支持、測試和培訓服務。大多數新客戶都將利用這項服務，包括在第四季度簽約的 CNO 和 Ohio National，我們將在未來幾個季度收到其中幾項服務。

We also signed new contracts with Equitable [ph], Symetra and RW Baird in Q4. Our P&C business, the smallest of our vertical business units was down roughly 6% in '22 compared to '21. In Q4, we rolled out a new release of the Risk Envision product, one of the main product lines in this group. We are seeing a healthy pipeline and expect '23 to show growth over 2022. The Risk Compliance business was down 8% in Q3 -- sorry, in Q4 compared to Q3, which was a strong quarter for us. On a full year basis, the business was up 3%. This business continues to be a steady performer for us with a 28-year history serving over 600 customers, including 70 of the largest Fortune 500 companies.

我們還在第四季度與 Equitable [ph]、Symetra 和 RW Baird 簽訂了新合同。我們的 P&C 業務是我們最小的垂直業務部門，與 21 年相比，22 年下降了約 6%。在第四季度，我們推出了 Risk Envision 產品的新版本，這是該組的主要產品線之一。我們看到了一條健康的管道，並預計 23 年將在 2022 年之前顯示增長。風險合規業務在第三季度下降了 8%——抱歉，與第三季度相比，第四季度對我們來說是一個強勁的季度。從全年來看，該業務增長了 3%。這項業務對我們來說仍然是一個穩定的表現，擁有 28 年的歷史，為 600 多家客戶提供服務，其中包括 70 家最大的財富 500 強公司。

Looking forward, we feel optimistic about the path we are on. Several factors contribute to our optimism, which are outlined as follows: the current macroeconomic environment is favorable to several of our core units, such as annuities. The high interest rates are providing a strong tailwind for the industry. This is increasing the number of annuity transactions and also bringing new entrants to the market. Both these are favorable trends for our business. We are seeing an uptick in transactions continuing into the early months of 2023.

展望未來，我們對所走的道路感到樂觀。有幾個因素促成了我們的樂觀情緒，概述如下：當前的宏觀經濟環境有利於我們的幾個核心部門，例如年金。高利率為該行業提供了強大的推動力。這增加了年金交易的數量，也為市場帶來了新的進入者。這些都是我們業務的有利趨勢。我們看到交易量的上升一直持續到 2023 年初。

More on this when we report our Q1 '23 earnings. The jobs market is continuing to cool off in our industry. Over the past few months, we have seen a marked progress in filling our backlog and have also seen a drop off in attrition rates. We also reorganized our delivery organization and exchange division in 2022. We were previously organized by product line, which had limitations and redundancies. We have now aligned ourselves with a centralized customer-focused operating organization, including client services, product strategy and development and production support. This structure will be important as we see ourselves selling and servicing comprehensive digital solutions that encompass several of our products.

當我們報告 23 年第一季度的收益時，會詳細介紹這一點。我們行業的就業市場正在繼續降溫。在過去的幾個月裡，我們在填補積壓工作方面取得了顯著進展，而且離職率也有所下降。我們還在 2022 年重組了我們的交付組織和交換部門。我們以前是按產品線組織的，這有局限性和冗餘性。我們現在已經與一個以客戶為中心的集中運營組織保持一致，包括客戶服務、產品戰略以及開發和生產支持。這種結構非常重要，因為我們看到自己銷售和服務包含我們多種產品的綜合數字解決方案。

We are excited about our new sales organization. We fully rebuilt our sales organization in 2022 with the majority of the sales organization having been hired within the last 12 months. These newly hired experts serve as client partners and are viewed by our clients as solutionists for helping them find the right fit for their technology needs. This setup allows us to better serve our customers and optimizes the penetration of our products within our existing client base. We are already seeing positive results. The number of customers using C or more of our products and services has improved by 20% in the past year. The pipeline going into 2023 is healthy.

我們對新的銷售組織感到興奮。我們在 2022 年全面重建了我們的銷售組織，大部分銷售組織都是在過去 12 個月內聘用的。這些新聘請的專家擔任客戶合作夥伴，並被我們的客戶視為幫助他們找到適合其技術需求的解決方案專家。這種設置使我們能夠更好地為客戶服務，並優化我們的產品在現有客戶群中的滲透率。我們已經看到了積極的結果。使用我們產品和服務的 C 級或以上的客戶數量在過去一年中增加了 20%。進入 2023 年的管道是健康的。

Ebix has always been at the forefront of product innovation. In line with this legacy, Ebix is launching the super highway, its most advanced exchange to support life and annuities processing. This super highway is designed to significantly unify and enhance the adviser experience in selling life and annuity products. It is a well-known fact that selling that the selling process across the industry is fairly disjointed, wherein the adviser has to navigate through multiple subsystems across the life cycle of selling a policy.

Ebix 一直走在產品創新的前沿。根據這一傳統，Ebix 正在推出超級高速公路，這是其支持人壽和年金處理的最先進的交易所。這條高速公路旨在顯著統一和增強顧問在銷售壽險和年金產品方面的經驗。眾所周知，整個行業的銷售過程相當脫節，其中顧問必須在銷售保單的整個生命週期中瀏覽多個子系統。

Super highway will solve that problem from customer needs analysis, product research, coating, illustration, order submission, policy issuance and post-issue policy maintenance, the adviser will be able to navigate through a unified and streamlined user experience, an experience that will be aided by data-driven artificial intelligence, guided user activity, machine learning and natural language processing. The super highway was unveiled at the recent Ebix exposition in Orlando.

Super highway 將從客戶需求分析、產品研究、塗裝、插圖、訂單提交、政策發布和發布後政策維護解決該問題，顧問將能夠通過統一和簡化的用戶體驗進行導航，這種體驗將是借助數據驅動的人工智能、引導用戶活動、機器學習和自然語言處理。這條超級高速公路最近在奧蘭多的 Ebix 博覽會上亮相。

We believe the expansion of the annuity sales will also increase the need for post-issue policy servicing. This includes both financial and nonfinancial transactions such as policy changes, withdrawals, fund transfers, dollar cost averaging and asset rebalancing. Ebix has already developed a solution called annuity maintenance platform called AMP. We believe the adoption of AMP will increase considerably as the market for annuities in general continues to expand. Overall, we are excited about the outlook for our North American business.

我們認為，年金銷售的擴大也將增加對簽發後保單服務的需求。這包括金融和非金融交易，例如政策變更、提款、資金轉移、美元成本平均和資產再平衡。 Ebix 已經開發了一個名為 AMP 的年金維護平台解決方案。我們相信，隨著年金市場的總體持續擴張，AMP 的採用率將大大增加。總的來說，我們對北美業務的前景感到興奮。

As some companies brace for an uncertain economic environment, our business in North America will continue to be resilient. This stems from a wide area of products that collectively provide a natural hedge in any economic climate. Our strength is also founded on a very diverse set of customers, which includes hundreds of insurance companies and banks, tens of thousands of advisers, dozens of top medical institutions and several of the top Fortune 500 companies, our pricing model, which is largely recurring in nature, adds to the solidity of our business model.

由於一些公司準備迎接不確定的經濟環境，我們在北美的業務將繼續保持彈性。這源於廣泛的產品，這些產品在任何經濟環境下共同提供自然對沖。我們的優勢還建立在非常多樣化的客戶群上，其中包括數百家保險公司和銀行、數万名顧問、數十家頂級醫療機構和數家財富 500 強公司，我們的定價模式在很大程度上是經常性的在本質上，增加了我們商業模式的穩固性。

We are mindful of the important part we play in running some of the largest exchanges in the industry. This is a responsibility we take very seriously. I'm grateful to all the Ebix employees who work hard to make it all happen.

我們注意到我們在運營業內一些最大的交易所中發揮的重要作用。這是我們非常重視的責任。我感謝所有為實現這一切而努力工作的 Ebix 員工。

I will now pass it along to Robin for his comments.

我現在將它傳遞給 Robin，徵求他的意見。

Good morning. This has been a record year for Ebix in terms of revenue with the company clocking approximately $1.05 billion in GAAP revenues.

早上好。就收入而言，今年是 Ebix 創紀錄的一年，該公司的 GAAP 收入約為 10.5 億美元。

For me, a few things stand out as regards to annual performance. Constant currency revenues of $1.1 billion with 11.3% year-over-year growth. On a constant currency basis, all 3 channels of the company showed year-over-year growth, constant currency insurance exchange revenues increased by 2% in '22 versus '21. On a constant currency basis, RCS revenues increased by 11% as compared to 2021. On a constant currency basis, Ebix cash revenues increased 14% year-over-year. On a constant currency basis, 9 of the 11 major geographies experienced year-over-year growth in revenues.

對我來說，關於年度業績，有幾件事很突出。固定匯率收入為 11 億美元，同比增長 11.3%。在固定匯率的基礎上，公司的所有 3 個渠道均出現同比增長，22 年的固定匯率保險兌換收入比 21 年增長了 2%。按固定匯率計算，RCS 收入比 2021 年增長 11%。按固定匯率計算，Ebix 現金收入同比增長 14%。按固定匯率計算，11 個主要地區中有 9 個地區的收入同比增長。

In 2022, the company generated $142.8 million of EBITDA plus noncash stock compensation expense, an increase of 3.2 million or 2% over '21 levels. I compared the 2022 numbers to 2020 fiscal year numbers to get a perspective on the overall business growth. Between 2020 and 2022, worldwide GAAP revenues have grown up -- have grown by 68%. Between 2020 and 2022, EbixCash GAAP revenues have grown by 112%.

2022 年，公司產生了 1.428 億美元的 EBITDA 加上非現金股票補償費用，比 21 世紀的水平增加了 320 萬美元或 2%。我將 2022 年的數字與 2020 財年的數字進行了比較，以了解整體業務增長情況。從 2020 年到 2022 年，全球 GAAP 收入增長了 68%。 2020 年至 2022 年間，EbixCash GAAP 收入增長了 112%。

While comparing 2022 fiscal year numbers with '21 fiscal year numbers, the performance of a few international operations, in addition to U.S. and India was especially noteworthy Latin America year-over-year grew by 42%. Singapore year-over-year grew by 10%. Indonesia year-over-year grew by 261%. Philippines year-over-year grew by 91%. Middle East year-over-year grew by 30%.

在將 2022 財年數據與 21 財年數據進行比較時，除美國和印度外，一些國際業務的業績尤其值得注意，拉丁美洲同比增長了 42%。新加坡同比增長 10%。印度尼西亞同比增長 261%。菲律賓同比增長 91%。中東同比增長 30%。

As regards to quarterly Q4 '22 year-over-year performance, a few things to note. On a constant currency basis, Q4 '22 revenues increased 5% year-over-year and would have been $23.8 million higher in the quarter, but for foreign exchange rate changes during the quarter. On a constant currency basis, 8 of the 11 major geographies worldwide had year-over-year revenue growth in Q4 '22. In Q4 '22, insurance exchanges worldwide increased 1% on a constant currency basis.

關於 22 年第 4 季度的同比表現，有幾點需要注意。按固定匯率計算，22 年第 4 季度的收入同比增長 5%，本季度本應增加 2380 萬美元，但本季度的外匯匯率發生變化。按固定匯率計算，22 年第四季度全球 11 個主要地區中有 8 個地區的收入同比增長。在 22 年第四季度，全球保險交易所按固定匯率計算增長了 1%。

Risk Compliance Solutions constant currency revenue increased 14% year-over-year in the fourth quarter of '22, Ebix cash constant currency revenue increased 7% year-over-year in the fourth quarter of '22, excluding the prepaid gift card revenues, Ebix cash revenues increased year-over-year by 30%. I'm also pleased with our operating cash flow performance in the quarter with the company reporting $32.5 million of operating cash flow in the fourth quarter of $22 million. We started the year with cash, cash equivalents, short-term investments and restricted cash of $125.2 million as of 31st December '21. And as of 31st December '22, we still had net cash of $113.4 million after accounting for the $22.9 million late withdrawal by the bank.

Risk Compliance Solutions 固定貨幣收入在 22 年第四季度同比增長 14%，Ebix 現金固定貨幣收入在 22 年第四季度同比增長 7%，不包括預付禮品卡收入， Ebix 現金收入同比增長 30%。我也對我們本季度的運營現金流表現感到滿意，該公司報告第四季度的運營現金流為 3250 萬美元，為 2200 萬美元。截至 2021 年 12 月 31 日，我們年初的現金、現金等價物、短期投資和受限現金為 1.252 億美元。截至 22 年 12 月 31 日，在計入銀行逾期提款 2290 萬美元後，我們仍有 1.134 億美元的淨現金。

This was after the company cumulatively spent $111.5 million in '22, just on a few key areas, $33.2 million of cash interest paid, $23.5 million used to reduce the principal outstanding on our corporate credit facility, $24 million for income-related taxes paid globally, a combined $21.5 million expended on capital expenditures and software development costs and an additional $9.3 million for dividend payments. We had $98.7 million of cash, cash equivalents, short-term investments and restricted cash as of 30th September '22, and as of 31st December '22, we still had net cash of $113.4 million. All of that speaks to the cash generation abilities of the company.

這是在公司在 22 年累計花費 1.115 億美元之後，僅在幾個關鍵領域，支付了 3320 萬美元的現金利息，2350 萬美元用於減少我們公司信貸額度的未償還本金，2400 萬美元用於全球支付的所得稅相關稅款，總計 2150 萬美元用於資本支出和軟件開發成本，另外還有 930 萬美元用於股息支付。截至 2022 年 9 月 30 日，我們擁有 9870 萬美元的現金、現金等價物、短期投資和受限現金，截至 2022 年 12 月 31 日，我們仍有 1.134 億美元的淨現金。所有這些都說明了公司的現金生成能力。

At the present minute, I have limited ability to speak on the debt refinancing front as we are governed by tight confidentiality agreements with any and all entities involved. Management continues to work with the company's Board of Directors and outside financial and legal advisers to address the refinancing of its credit facility, which the company in cooperation with syndicate of banks extended to May 2023, in order to give the company time to continue to pursue alternatives that refinance the credit facility. The company has multiple options that it is exploring to ensure that the credit facility is largely or wholly refinanced as quickly as possible.

目前，我在債務再融資方面的發言能力有限，因為我們受與任何和所有相關實體的嚴格保密協議的約束。管理層繼續與公司董事會以及外部財務和法律顧問合作，解決其信貸額度的再融資問題，公司與銀團合作將其延長至 2023 年 5 月，以便公司有時間繼續追求為信貸設施再融資的替代方案。該公司正在探索多種選擇，以確保盡快對信貸額度進行大部分或全部再融資。

Rest assured that we are fully aware that while our operating income continues to be strong, our net income is getting negatively impacted by the high cost of bank interest and associated legal and advisory fees associated with the refinancing and extension exercise. We also believe that once the EbixCash IPO is carried out successfully, it is expected to reduce our interest costs substantially.

請放心，我們充分意識到，雖然我們的營業收入繼續保持強勁，但我們的淨收入正受到高昂的銀行利息成本以及與再融資和延期活動相關的法律和諮詢費用的負面影響。我們也相信，一旦 EbixCash IPO 成功進行，有望大幅降低我們的利息成本。

In the meanwhile, we are working with our financial advisers Jefferies on a number of possible options. Our goal remains to seek a structure that is in the best interest of all of our stakeholders. Our business is thriving and healthy worldwide. Our operating metrics are strong and our senior management convinced about the opportunity ahead of us.

與此同時，我們正在與我們的財務顧問 Jefferies 合作，研究多種可能的選擇。我們的目標仍然是尋求一種符合我們所有利益相關者最大利益的結構。我們的業務在全球蓬勃發展。我們的運營指標非常強勁，我們的高級管理層對我們面前的機遇深信不疑。

In the long term, we are focused on resolving the nonoperating metrics like interest costs and some of the nonrecurring costs that we are presently incurring on advisers, et cetera, associated with the refinancing. We have a plan in place to grow our operating income further and try and reduce extraneous costs, but our first priority is to handle the debt refinancing in the short term and then have a cost structure that ultimately is set for income maximization.

從長遠來看，我們專注於解決非運營指標，如利息成本和我們目前在顧問等方面產生的與再融資相關的一些非經常性成本。我們制定了進一步增加營業收入並嘗試減少額外成本的計劃，但我們的首要任務是在短期內處理債務再融資，然後製定最終旨在實現收入最大化的成本結構。

We would like to get to that ultimate plan in 2023 itself and are working towards it. Success isn't always about greatness. It's about consistency. At Ebix, we are firm believers in this quote from Louis Carl [ph], and we will continue to strive to deliver consistent revenue growth and results that we can be proud of.

我們希望在 2023 年實現最終計劃，並正在朝著這個目標努力。成功並不總是與偉大有關。這是關於一致性。在 Ebix，我們堅信 Louis Carl [ph] 的這句話，我們將繼續努力實現持續的收入增長和我們引以為豪的成果。

After 23 years of consistency in terms of growth and other operating metrics, Ebix has proven that it is completely committed to achieving greatness on the foundations of consistency. We are thus committed to creating a capital structure that maximizes value for our stockholders. In closing, as always, I want to thank our customers, our partners and our employees for their continued trust in us and for contributing to an outstanding fiscal 2022.

經過 23 年在增長和其他運營指標方面的一致性，Ebix 已經證明它完全致力於在一致性的基礎上實現卓越。因此，我們致力於為我們的股東創造一個最大化價值的資本結構。最後，我要一如既往地感謝我們的客戶、我們的合作夥伴和我們的員工，感謝他們一直以來對我們的信任，感謝他們為 2022 財年的出色表現做出的貢獻。

With that, I will now pass the call over to the operator and open it up for questions. Thank you.

有了這個，我現在將把電話轉給接線員並打開它提問。謝謝。

(Operator Instructions) We will take our first question from Jeffrey Van Rhee with Craig-Hallum.

（操作員說明）我們將與 Craig-Hallum 一起回答 Jeffrey Van Rhee 的第一個問題。

Great. Robin, with respect to the credit agreement, there's a few lines in there talking about Ebix is to provide a strategic plan on or before March 15. Was that done? And with respect to communication with shareholders, what can shareholders expect to hear as this process evolves.

偉大的。羅賓，關於信貸協議，其中有幾行談到 Ebix 是在 3 月 15 日或之前提供戰略計劃。完成了嗎？在與股東的溝通方面，隨著這一過程的發展，股東希望聽到什麼。

Jeff, first of all, yes, meaning we absolutely will be in time with respect to the 15th deadline rest shared about it. I didn't get your second question. Can you please repeat that?

傑夫，首先，是的，這意味著我們絕對會在第 15 個最後期限之前及時分享它。我沒有得到你的第二個問題。你能再說一遍嗎？

The first was just whether or not you provided that strategic plan on or before today. And then the other one was in terms of shareholder communication, what is it that they can expect? I mean, presumably in that communication to the Board creditors, et cetera, you evaluated options from all the way from selling parts or all of the business to various credit options to, I would imagine, a very wide range. But seemingly, you presented that. What does it look like for the next 3, 6, 12 months for shareholders in terms of what they're going to hear and what they're going to know about what's going on?

首先是您是否在今天或之前提供了該戰略計劃。然後另一個是在股東溝通方面，他們可以期待什麼？我的意思是，大概在與董事會債權人等的溝通中，你評估了從出售部分或全部業務到各種信貸選擇的各種選擇，我想，範圍非常廣泛。但看起來，你提出了那個。在接下來的 3、6、12 個月裡，股東們會聽到什麼以及他們會知道發生了什麼？

Well, our job is to -- our goal is to be as transparent as possible with our shareholders within the rules. Having said that, we have a next deadline, as you know, of May 23 that we -- our extension is still made 23. So our shareholders are definitely going to hear from us on the path we undertake at that point of time. I think between now and then, it's extremely difficult for me to give -- to lay out all the possible options, all the different things that we're working on, simply because we -- like I said in my talk, we are governed by confidentiality provisions and it wouldn't be prudent or right for me to be able to speak about it.

那麼，我們的工作是 - 我們的目標是在規則範圍內對我們的股東盡可能透明。話雖如此，如您所知，我們的下一個截止日期是 5 月 23 日，我們的延期仍然是 23 日。所以我們的股東肯定會聽到我們在那個時間點採取的道路。我想從現在到那時，我很難給出——列出所有可能的選擇，我們正在做的所有不同的事情，僅僅因為我們——就像我在演講中說的那樣，我們受到監管根據保密規定，讓我談論它是不謹慎或不正確的。

On the…

在……

Hi, Jeff. This is Steve Hamil. Just to be totally clear, that strategic plan was finalized a few days ago. and will be delivered to our bank group today, whether it has been delivered as of 11:41 a.m. I'm not 100% sure that will be delivered through our advisers to the bank group. So yes, it will be delivered today.

嗨，傑夫。這是史蒂夫·哈米爾。需要明確的是，該戰略計劃已於幾天前完成。並將於今天交付給我們的銀行集團，無論它是否已於上午 11:41 交付。我不能 100% 確定會通過我們的顧問交付給銀行集團。所以是的，它將在今天交付。

And then with respect to the IPO, I mean, understanding your hands are tied in many ways to comment on this. It's about a year since the filing SEBI appears to be a mess. They've struggled to move things forward at anywhere near the pace they used to kind of across the board. But clearly, Ebix is an outlier. I realize you're not going to give me exact timing. But any observations about the overall market without talking to your specific instance that would be relevant for investors watching this process and wondering why SEBI is not moving?

然後關於首次公開募股，我的意思是，理解你的手在很多方面都被束縛著對此發表評論。自提交 SEBI 以來似乎一團糟已經過去了大約一年。他們一直在努力以接近過去的速度全面推進事情。但顯然，Ebix 是一個異常值。我知道你不會給我確切的時間。但是，在不與您的具體實例交談的情況下，對整體市場的任何觀察都與投資者關注這一過程有關，並且想知道為什麼 SEBI 沒有採取行動？

I couldn't really comment on why SEBI isn't moving. Look, it's very hard for us to comment. At the same time, we would hope and believe that we should get -- at some point, we're going to get that approval sooner rather than later. Having said that, some of it, as you know, Indian market -- stock markets have gone through a lot of turmoil in the last 1.5 months, especially. And I would -- it could be that, that has something to do with the delay in terms of -- there's a lot of stuff happening in India, and a lot of IPOs have gotten delayed from an approval perspective from SEBI, right? Because having said that, we would -- we'd like to believe that we are going to get our approval sooner rather than later. For our bankers, as I said earlier, are fully geared up, all 5 bankers are ready to pounce on it, ready to launch their marketing attempts and so on. So we -- it could happen any time, Jeff, and it's impossible for me to give you -- tell you something until we hear back until we have something from SEBI.

我無法真正評論為什麼 SEBI 沒有移動。看，我們很難發表評論。與此同時，我們希望並相信我們應該——在某個時候，我們將儘早獲得批准。話雖如此，其中一些，正如你所知，印度市場 - 股市在過去 1.5 個月經歷了很多動盪，尤其是。我會——這可能與延遲有關——印度發生了很多事情，從 SEBI 的批准角度來看，很多 IPO 都被推遲了，對吧？因為話雖如此，我們願意相信我們會盡快獲得批准。對於我們的銀行家，我剛才說了，已經做好了充分的準備，5家銀行家都準備好撲上去，準備展開他們的營銷嘗試等等。所以我們 - 它隨時可能發生，傑夫，我不可能給你 - 告訴你一些事情，直到我們收到回音，直到我們從 SEBI 那裡得到一些東西。

Okay. Two other questions then. Market share-wise, if I break it up between EbixCash and then the North American business, obviously, COVID has depressed a lot of the EbixCash businesses. But would you say you've gained held or lost share since pre-COVID? And I'd ask the same question separately about the North American business, gain lost or held share?

好的。那麼另外兩個問題。就市場份額而言，如果我在 EbixCash 和北美業務之間進行拆分，顯然，COVID 已經壓低了很多 EbixCash 業務。但是你會說自 COVID 之前以來你持有或失去了份額嗎？我會分別問同樣的問題關於北美業務，收益損失或持有份額？

Well, with respect to EbixCash, I can absolutely tell you, we have absolutely gained in market share in almost every market segment that we operate in. The COVID was -- became with all its negativities -- it ultimately became an opportunity for us because some of the smaller players just tied by the wayside, meaning if you just look at, I could go one by one and walk you through ForEx, remittance meaning travel, you're going to see that we've actually done quite well in terms of our percentage share in the market, whether you take them -- whether you count the number of airports we had, we have before -- when we started with COVID started going away, if you look at the number of airports we had for ForEx and what we have now, the number keeps increasing virtually by the day.

好吧，關於 EbixCash，我絕對可以告訴你，我們在我們經營的幾乎每個細分市場中都絕對獲得了市場份額。COVID 是 - 成為它的所有負面因素 - 它最終成為我們的機會，因為一些較小的玩家只是被束縛在路邊，這意味著如果你只是看看，我可以一個一個地帶你了解外匯，匯款意味著旅行，你會發現我們實際上在這方面做得很好我們在市場中的百分比份額，無論你是否接受它們——無論你計算我們擁有的機場數量，我們以前擁有的——當我們開始使用 COVID 時，如果你看看我們擁有的 ForEx 機場數量，我們就開始消失了而我們現在所擁有的，這個數字幾乎每天都在增加。

I mean, we almost a few days back, we actually had one of the largest airport approval one of the airports that we didn't have just came to us in the last 3, 4 days. Having said that, I could go on in ForEx in terms of our corporate market share or our airport market share or port market share and so on. And similar provisions go on, whether we talk about educational remittances, our market share has substantially increased. It's a function of what is the overall market size.

我的意思是，差不多幾天前，我們實際上獲得了最大的機場批准之一，這是我們在過去 3 天、4 天沒有得到的機場之一。話雖如此，我可以在我們的企業市場份額或我們的機場市場份額或港口市場份額等方面繼續從事 ForEx。類似的條款繼續下去，無論我們談論教育匯款，我們的市場份額都大幅增加。它是整體市場規模的函數。

If you look at the overall market side and that gets depressed by COVID. Now the question is, are we gaining in market share with respect to what is the present market size? And the answer is an absolute resounding, yes. I could go in into bus exchange area where we have kept announcing deals and hopefully, we'll announce more deals in the coming days and so on. So there's a lot of positive momentum that -- and it gets reflected in the growth in revenues that we have shown with respect to EbixCash. Ash, you want to comment on the U.S. side of the business?

如果你看一下整體市場方面，就會發現 COVID 令市場低迷。現在的問題是，相對於目前的市場規模，我們是否獲得了市場份額？答案是絕對響亮的，是的。我可以進入我們一直在宣布交易的巴士換乘區，希望我們會在未來幾天宣布更多交易等等。因此，有很多積極的勢頭——它反映在我們在 EbixCash 方面所顯示的收入增長中。 Ash，你想對美國方面的業務發表評論嗎？

Certainly. So Jeff, looking at North America, you would have to look at the different subsegments of the market. So as an example, our life and annuity exchanges, I would say, over the last 12 months would have certainly increased market share. And the way we look at that is based on the number of transactions that are going through our platforms. We have added more carriers and more distributors on the platform in the last 12 to 18 months than we have done probably in the last 5 years before that.

當然。所以傑夫，看看北美，你必須看看市場的不同細分市場。因此，作為一個例子，我想說，在過去的 12 個月裡，我們的人壽和年金交易所肯定會增加市場份額。我們看待這個問題的方式是基於通過我們平台進行的交易數量。在過去的 12 到 18 個月裡，我們在平台上增加了更多的運營商和分銷商，這可能比我們在此之前的過去 5 年所做的還要多。

On the life side, specifically, we've added -- we've increased the number of carriers on our platform quite significantly. And ultimately, that's a key driver in terms of increasing the market share -- in some of the other divisions like our Health division, I would say it's probably relatively flat, but we are adding a big international broker to the platform, which is a fairly significant deal for us. So we believe that itself will also increase our subscription revenue.

在生活方面，具體來說，我們已經添加——我們已經相當顯著地增加了我們平台上的承運人數量。最終，這是增加市場份額的一個關鍵驅動因素——在我們的健康部門等其他一些部門，我想說它可能相對持平，但我們正在為平台增加一個大型國際經紀人，這是一個對我們來說相當重要的交易。所以我們相信這本身也會增加我們的訂閱收入。

In certain other areas such as wellness, other areas such as our P&C business, it's more or less flat to a slight decline. These businesses now represent a much smaller part of our overall business, Jeff. So our focus really is the core, which I defined as our life annuities, the health business, these are all businesses that are fairly solid.

在某些其他領域，如健康，其他領域，如我們的 P&C 業務，它或多或少持平或略有下降。這些業務現在只占我們整體業務的一小部分，傑夫。所以我們的重點確實是核心，我將其定義為我們的人壽年金、健康業務，這些都是相當穩固的業務。

Ash probably I would add the RCS certificate business or the core business.

Ash 可能我會添加 RCS 證書業務或核心業務。

Yes. Yes, exactly. And the RCS business, it stays steady. We do business with, like I said, over 70 of the largest Fortune 500 companies. So we have continued to keep a pretty significant place for ourselves in the industry. We are a very well-recognized brand. Same with Oakstone, we are probably one of the larger players in the CME business. Market share is probably up or down a little bit, but the key point is it's a very solid business for us and we expect to continue to grow some of these business units.

是的。對，就是這樣。而 RCS 業務，它保持穩定。正如我所說，我們與超過 70 家最大的財富 500 強公司有業務往來。因此，我們繼續在行業中保持相當重要的地位。我們是一個非常知名的品牌。與 Oakstone 一樣，我們可能是 CME 業務中較大的參與者之一。市場份額可能會有所上升或下降，但關鍵是這對我們來說是一項非常穩固的業務，我們希望繼續發展其中的一些業務部門。

And Robin and or Ash, you might want to add a little color around the EA joint venture and how that's been a bit of a drag on revenues for the last couple of years?

Robin 和/或 Ash，你可能想為 EA 合資企業添加一點色彩，以及這對過去幾年的收入有何拖累？

Yes. I think I mean, basically, when you look at the overall revenue, so we think sometimes we -- EA revenue has -- it's mainly -- it's fallen, as I've talked about in the previous call. It's our TPA business. And in a TPA business, so when you look at the cumulative revenue, the fall in that EA revenue gets reflected and it offset some of the increases that we show in some of the other businesses that Ash kept talking about.

是的。我想我的意思是，基本上，當你看總收入時，所以我們認為有時我們 - EA 收入 - 它主要是 - 它下降了，正如我在之前的電話會議中談到的那樣。這是我們的 TPA 業務。在 TPA 業務中，當你查看累計收入時，EA 收入的下降得到反映，它抵消了我們在 Ash 一直談論的其他一些業務中顯示的一些增長。

And the TPA business, one of our main reasons was our joint venture partner basically decided to get out of health business completely. And they were one of the largest clients for us, and that just went away from one day to another in a way, and that has obviously caused a bit of pain in terms of revenues. It has also -- it is one business where there are no many businesses where Ebix would be saying that we lose any money.

而 TPA 業務，我們的主要原因之一是我們的合資夥伴基本上決定完全退出健康業務。他們是我們最大的客戶之一，而且在某種程度上只是從一天到另一天，這顯然在收入方面造成了一些痛苦。它還——這是一個沒有多少企業的企業，Ebix 會說我們虧了錢。

And this is a business where we actually have a bit of a negative profitability, a bit of losses out there, which we are trying to -- as we figure that one out, we are basically actively working on trying to figure that one out. We're trying to figure out can we get our JV partner completely out to things candidly. And if we can do that, it actually -- there are ways and means to make that business a lot a lot better. We're a bit hindered by the fact that we have a JV partner who is actually out of business and is not able to contribute. And in turn, we have some obligation attached to that client, which actually cost us a bit of money. So there's a bit of room there for us to gain in terms of profitability is how I see it. But it's a fairly small business right now, fairly miniscule for us right now.

這是一項我們實際上有一點負盈利能力的業務，我們正在努力——當我們弄清楚這一點時，我們基本上正在積極努力地試圖弄清楚這一點。我們正在努力弄清楚我們能否讓我們的合資夥伴完全坦誠地面對事情。如果我們能做到這一點，它實際上 - 有很多方法和手段可以使該業務變得更好。我們有一個 JV 合作夥伴實際上已經停業並且無法做出貢獻，這讓我們有點受阻。反過來，我們對那個客戶有一些義務，這實際上讓我們花了一些錢。因此，就我的看法而言，我們在盈利能力方面還有一些提升空間。但它現在是一個相當小的企業，對我們來說是微不足道的。

Okay. Last for me, a couple of model specific questions. The -- as I look at the GAAP net income, it's about a $6 million miss versus my estimate and about $5 million of that comes below the operating line. So I think I can model out the interest expense going forward that leaves then the other big variance this quarter, the 2 were interest expense and primarily taxes. So 2 specific questions. How should we think about taxes in '23 and then specifically in Q1, but the year as well?

好的。最後對我來說，幾個模型特定的問題。當我查看 GAAP 淨收入時，與我的估計相比大約有 600 萬美元的損失，其中約 500 萬美元低於運營線。因此，我認為我可以對未來的利息支出進行建模，這會在本季度留下另一個大差異，這兩個差異是利息支出，主要是稅收。所以2個具體問題。我們應該如何考慮 23 年的稅收，然後特別是第一季度，但今年也是如此？

And then also G&A, you touched on it. I mean, obviously, it's running fat here up considerably over really any trailing periods. You called out rent and a few things that seem like they will persist, but I'm wondering at this $36 million non-GAAP run rate or actual print $36 million of G&A in Q4, if that's the right level to assume going forward? So really 2 questions here, taxes and G&A?

然後還有 G&A，你談到了它。我的意思是，很明顯，它在任何尾隨期間都在大幅上漲。你提到了租金和一些看起來會持續存在的事情，但我想知道在第四季度這個 3600 萬美元的非 GAAP 運行率或實際印刷 3600 萬美元的 G&A，如果這是假設前進的正確水平？所以這裡真的有 2 個問題，稅收和 G&A？

Yes. Steve, you want to talk about G&A first. Yes please do, please do and I'll add to it. Yes. Go ahead

是的。史蒂夫，你想先談談 G&A。是的，請做，請做，我會添加。是的。前進

So Jeff, at the beginning of 2021, our borrowing rate was 4% through rising interest rate environment, increased spreads as we had to do an amendment for COVID, our borrowing rate has increased pretty materially. So if you look at the end of 2021, our borrowing rate was 5.5%. At the end of 2022, our borrowing rate was 9.6%. So in 2 years, we've gone from 4% to 9.6%, largely as a result of increase in the LIBOR rate. And today, our borrowing rate is just under 12% as rates have continued to persist, and we had a little bit of an increase in our borrowing spread.

因此，傑夫，在 2021 年初，由於利率環境上升，我們的借貸利率為 4%，利差增加，因為我們不得不對 COVID 進行修正，我們的借貸利率大幅上升。所以如果你看看 2021 年底，我們的借款利率是 5.5%。到 2022 年底，我們的借款利率為 9.6%。所以在 2 年內，我們已經從 4% 上升到 9.6%，這主要是由於 LIBOR 利率上升。今天，由於利率繼續保持不變，我們的借貸利率略低於 12%，而且我們的借貸利差略有增加。

Additionally, in 2022, we had a couple of different payments to the bank group that were fees associated with having not refinanced the deal by certain measurement dates. In 2022, we spent probably $2.65 million out the door to these banks, and those were capitalized as deferred financing costs. But if you think about probably $2.1 million of that was amortized into expense during 2022. And in the fourth quarter, that number was probably about $900-plus of interest expense related to those onetime fees. So we've been hit by a rising rate environment, an increase in our spreads and increased fees and out-of-pockets related to the bank group.

此外，在 2022 年，我們向銀行集團支付了幾筆不同的款項，這些款項是與在某些衡量日期之前未為交易再融資相關的費用。 2022 年，我們在這些銀行外支出了大約 265 萬美元，這些錢被資本化為遞延融資成本。但是，如果您考慮一下，其中可能有 210 萬美元在 2022 年攤銷到費用中。在第四季度，這個數字可能是與這些一次性費用相關的利息費用超過 900 美元。因此，我們受到了利率上升環境、利差增加以及與銀行集團相關的費用和自付費用增加的打擊。

So Jeff.

所以傑夫。

From a tax...

從稅...

Go ahead, go ahead. I am sorry.

去吧，去吧。對不起。

From a tax standpoint, Jeff, our starting point for pretax book income wasn't materially different '21 to '22. But there's a couple of big things that have caused the effective tax rate to go from 9% to 13% during 2022. Really, the first one is just the amount of foreign-related in comp and higher tax jurisdictions that has been generated and included related to GILTI calculation. And then really the second one is temporary differences around the Trump Tax Act, there's a Section 163(j) provision, which limits your business interest expense deduction.

從稅收的角度來看，傑夫，我們稅前賬面收入的起點與 21 世紀和 22 世紀沒有本質區別。但是有幾件大事導致有效稅率在 2022 年從 9% 上升到 13%。實際上，第一個只是已經產生並包括在 comp 和更高稅收管轄區的涉外金額與 GILTI 計算有關。第二個實際上是特朗普稅法的暫時差異，第 163(j) 條規定限制了您的商業利息費用扣除。

And I'm not going to quote absolute numbers, but it's about 30% of your adjusted taxable income. And given the increased amount of interest expense we've had, that differential year-over-year from 2021 to 2022, increased our tax income by close to $8 million, just that one item. So those 2 items are the 2 biggest ones that contributed to the effective tax rate increasing from kind of 9% to 13%.

我不會引用絕對數字，但它大約是你調整後的應稅收入的 30%。鑑於我們的利息支出有所增加，從 2021 年到 2022 年的同比差異使我們的稅收收入增加了近 800 萬美元，僅此一項。因此，這兩個項目是導致有效稅率從 9% 增加到 13% 的兩個最大的項目。

So would that suggest then we would normalize at that rate? I mean, it doesn't seem like the tax act is going to change. So is that how to think about the rate going forward?

那麼這是否表明我們將以該速度正常化？我的意思是，稅法似乎不會改變。那麼這就是如何考慮未來的利率嗎？

Steve, do you want me to answer that?

史蒂夫，你想讓我回答這個問題嗎？

Yes. Go ahead, Robin.

是的。去吧，羅賓。

Yes. So let me answer both. I'll add to what Steve just talked about, interest and I'll talk about the tax sale. I expect the tax rate to be in single digits for this year. There are a number of reasons for it, but we can go through it. But basically, I would expect that to be somewhere in the 6% to 8% kind of a bracket in terms of the tax rate. The second question of yours was when you talked about the interest rates, how -- and how do you model all of this forward, I think the way to look at it is there is short term and then there's long term.

是的。所以讓我回答兩個。我將補充史蒂夫剛才談到的內容，興趣和稅收銷售。我預計今年的稅率將是個位數。原因有很多，但我們可以通過它。但基本上，就稅率而言，我希望它在 6% 到 8% 的範圍內。你的第二個問題是當你談到利率時，你如何——以及你如何對所有這些進行建模，我認為看待它的方式是有短期的，然後有長期的。

In the short term, obviously, we have costs in terms of -- you already -- Steve already talked to you through the interest costs that we have. Clearly, that is something we have to live with until we have paid our banks back. Now even if we refinance -- now the question becomes -- it all depends on the capital structure that we have chosen. There are capital structures. To give you a simple example, let's say we had a successful IPO or we had -- we launched our IPO.

顯然，在短期內，我們的成本是——你已經——史蒂夫已經通過我們的利息成本與你交談過。顯然，在我們還清銀行款項之前，這是我們必須忍受的事情。現在即使我們再融資——現在問題變成了——這完全取決於我們選擇的資本結構。有資本結構。舉個簡單的例子，假設我們成功進行了首次公開募股，或者我們已經啟動了首次公開募股。

Now our net interest costs are going to be relatively low simply because we would have raised money through equity, which doesn't have any costs associated with it and whether you keep that money in a bank earning interest or whether you use that to pay back -- pay reduce your debt in any way, meaning it ultimately results in a net reduction in terms of a pretty substantial net reduction in terms of interest costs.

現在我們的淨利息成本將相對較低，因為我們會通過股權籌集資金，這沒有任何相關成本，無論您是將這筆錢存入銀行賺取利息，還是用它來償還- 支付以任何方式減少你的債務，這意味著它最終會導致淨減少，即利息成本的相當可觀的淨減少。

So on a long-term basis, it all comes down to how soon can we get our IPO done. If we can get our IPO done, meaning a lot of these costs will reduced dramatically. Now having said that, in the meanwhile, we have to live with what we have. And we have to make sure we strive for every option out there to obviously pay our banks and refinance in the meanwhile. And that's exactly what we are doing. And for that, you -- Steve already talked you through the cost of interest that are presently being incurred.

因此，從長遠來看，一切都取決於我們能多快完成 IPO。如果我們能夠完成首次公開募股，這意味著這些成本中的很多將大大減少。話雖如此，與此同時，我們必須接受我們所擁有的。我們必須確保我們努力爭取所有的選擇，以便同時向我們的銀行付款和再融資。而這正是我們正在做的。為此，你——史蒂夫已經與你討論了目前產生的利息成本。

We'll take our next question from Chris [ph] Sakai with Singular Research.

我們將從奇異研究公司的 Chris [ph] Sakai 那裡回答下一個問題。

Yes. I just had a question on the annuity exchange. What were the main drivers as far as the increase in carriers and distributors in 2022? And what can we expect in 2023?

是的。我剛剛有一個關於年金交換的問題。 2022 年運營商和分銷商增長的主要驅動因素是什麼？我們在 2023 年可以期待什麼？

Ash, please go ahead.

亞瑟，請繼續。

Sure. Yes, I can take that. So the economic climate right now, especially with the high interest rates, that is a big factor, obviously, because annuities are paying higher interest rates, there's more annuity sales happening in the industry. So more carriers that were not previously in the annuity space are jumping in.

當然。是的，我可以接受。所以現在的經濟環境，尤其是高利率，這是一個很大的因素，顯然，因為年金支付更高的利率，這個行業發生了更多的年金銷售。因此，更多以前不在年金領域的運營商正在加入。

Another big factor for us over the last, I would say, 12 to 18 months was the onboarding of JPMorgan, who is one of the largest annuity players in the industry. And when you bring somebody like that onto the platform, all their carrier partners have to start participating on the exchange. So we're seeing higher volumes across the board because of the economic climate. We're also seeing new entrants come in. And like I outlined, about half of the growth actually came from more volume from existing customers and the other half from these new entrants.

在過去的 12 到 18 個月裡，對我們來說另一個重要因素是摩根大通的入職，摩根大通是業內最大的年金公司之一。當你把這樣的人帶到平台上時，他們所有的運營商合作夥伴都必須開始參與交換。因此，由於經濟環境，我們看到整體銷量增加。我們也看到新進入者的加入。正如我所概述的，大約一半的增長實際上來自現有客戶的更多數量，另一半來自這些新進入者。

In terms of 2023, I would say we expect as long as the interest rates stay where they are, we're going to continue to see fairly healthy growth in fact, for the first 2 months of this year. We have continued to see the same pattern that we saw in Q3 and Q4. So the volumes are way up there.

就 2023 年而言，我想說的是，只要利率保持不變，我們將在今年前兩個月繼續看到相當健康的增長。我們繼續看到與第三季度和第四季度相同的模式。所以體積在那裡。

So Chris, I want to add to what Ash said. I think we're also at a pivoting point. What has happened is that dominance, if I'm allowed to use the word dominance has continued to grow in this field. We've continued to grow our market share in this area. And what that has done is when you have that kind of dominance of market share, it leads to a networking effect. And it leads to some of the larger distributors who may not -- let's say there is a distributor, ABC, who might be on your competitor's platform? There is every reason for now for that large distributor to come to you for many reasons.

克里斯，我想補充一下 Ash 所說的話。我認為我們也處於一個轉折點。發生的事情是支配，如果允許我使用支配這個詞的話，它在這個領域繼續增長。我們繼續擴大我們在這一領域的市場份額。這樣做的結果是，當你擁有這種市場份額的主導地位時，就會產生網絡效應。它會導致一些較大的分銷商可能不會 - 假設有一個分銷商 ABC，他可能在您的競爭對手的平台上？現在有很多理由讓那個大經銷商來找你。

One, you have all the network sitting out there, which is the network they want to address. On the second side, we have the volume. Since we have the volumes, we can afford to do all this cutting-edge development, design the latest and the greatest of products which a smaller player who has a smaller market share cannot afford to do simply because they don't have their appetite because they don't have that revenue stream, so it's impossible for them to put those kind of costs in.

第一，所有網絡都在那裡，這是他們想要解決的網絡。在第二面，我們有音量。由於我們有大量的產品，我們有能力進行所有這些尖端開發，設計最新和最好的產品，而市場份額較小的小公司卻無力承擔，因為他們沒有胃口，因為他們沒有那種收入來源，所以他們不可能投入這些成本。

So net result of that is that you get to a point in exchanges, where the people will approach you rather than you approaching them. And we are seeing some of that phenomenon happening. I would be very disappointed if in the next 1 year, we don't candidly see some of the major -- some of the major clients that our competition has to come to us. We would like to see that, and we believe there is every reason to see that. And I have a reason to say it. Thank you.

所以最終的結果是你在交流中達到了一個點，人們會接近你而不是你接近他們。我們正在看到其中一些現象正在發生。如果在接下來的 1 年裡，我們不能坦率地看到我們的競爭對手必須來找我們的一些主要客戶，我會感到非常失望。我們希望看到這一點，我們相信有充分的理由看到這一點。我有理由這麼說。謝謝。

Okay. And then the prepaid card side of things, what was the reasoning for the decline there?

好的。然後是預付卡方面，下降的原因是什麼？

Look, we -- it's -- look, you have to see the market size. And what happened was during COVID, there was a pretty big growth in the prepaid card business, mainly because people didn't want to touch things and there was digitization dramatically increased. So this was a normal process that has set in, in terms of the size of the market.

看，我們 - 它 - 看，你必須看到市場規模。發生在 COVID 期間，預付卡業務出現了相當大的增長，主要是因為人們不想碰東西，而且數字化程度大大提高。因此，就市場規模而言，這是一個正常的過程。

First of all, the there was an absolute rush for prepaid cards during COVID. So once COVID became a thing of the past, that rush reduced a little bit. Secondly, candidly, it has to do with the commissions associated with that business. So when we do that business, part of our commissions are shared with subagents that we have.

首先，在 COVID 期間，預付卡絕對是熱潮。因此，一旦 COVID 成為過去，這種匆忙就會減少一點。其次，坦率地說，它與與該業務相關的佣金有關。因此，當我們開展這項業務時，我們的部分佣金會與我們擁有的子代理共享。

And now, if we -- it all depends on our business model, if we are prepared to share a larger part of our commission, this business revenue can be a lot higher than what we are reporting. It's just that we're not prepared to do that. We like to run profitable businesses. And a lot of our competition in this business segment is willing to pass on most of their commission to their subagents and agents simply because it gives them top line growth.

而現在，如果我們——這完全取決於我們的商業模式，如果我們準備分享更大一部分的佣金，那麼這項業務收入可能會比我們報告的要高很多。只是我們不准備這樣做。我們喜歡經營盈利的企業。我們在這個業務領域的很多競爭對手都願意將他們的大部分佣金轉嫁給他們的子代理人和代理人，僅僅是因為這會給他們帶來收入增長。

And we chose not to do that. And we decided that we're going to live with the business model that we have of profitability. And within that business model, we will continue to see how well we can do. And that's the reason for what you see out there in the prepaid card business.

我們選擇不這樣做。我們決定繼續採用我們擁有的盈利商業模式。在這種商業模式下，我們將繼續看看我們能做得多好。這就是您在預付卡業務中看到的原因。

Let me just... Also add some perspective from a CFO standpoint. Honestly, this business doesn't generate material cash flow income for us, okay? I don't really care whether we do $600 million [ph] of sales in the gift card business, $400 million $800 million -- all I -- my biggest concern as the CFO, and Robin's to the same degree is how much money are we making, right? How much EBITDA return? How much net income are we generating? I never want the analyst community or investors to get caught up in the prepaid card business because the way the competitive dynamics of it in India, it's just not a material generator of profit.

讓我...也從首席財務官的角度補充一些觀點。老實說，這項業務不會為我們產生實質性的現金流收入，好嗎？我真的不在乎我們是否在禮品卡業務中實現了 6 億美元 [ph] 的銷售額，4 億美元 8 億美元——所有我——我作為 CFO 和 Robin 最關心的是多少錢我們製作，對嗎？ EBITDA 回報率是多少？我們產生了多少淨收入？我從不希望分析師社區或投資者陷入預付卡業務，因為它在印度的競爭動態方式並不是物質利潤的來源。

So Chris, what we are now also trying to do to -- now that we have the reach and expands as one of the largest nonbanking players in the prepaid card business, we're using that. I'll give you an example of a recent example of how we are deploying these prepaid card products. One area and in a very profitable manner. One is, we signed an agreement with the West Bengal government, wherein in West Bengal, every roadways bus, we are providing the bus exchange system to basically were in every ticket that gets sold basically is happening using smart technology using our technology.

所以克里斯，我們現在也在努力做的事情 - 現在我們已經成為預付卡業務中最大的非銀行業者之一，我們正在使用它。我將舉一個最近的例子，說明我們如何部署這些預付卡產品。一個領域，以一種非常有利可圖的方式。一是，我們與西孟加拉邦政府簽署了一項協議，其中在西孟加拉邦，每輛公路巴士，我們都提供巴士交換系統，基本上在每張售出的車票中，基本上都是使用我們的技術使用智能技術進行的。

What we also did, we worked with the government in there to introduce all these prepaid cards for consumers and with the EbixCash prepaid card basically, the consumer, the West Bengal transport department, for example, decided to offer a discount, a slight discount on their prices. And net result is now you have a region for people, who are traveling in those buses to start using that prepaid card simply because it gets some a discount, plus it gives them the digital ability to use it on the bus and so on. And so we were able to position ourselves in – West Bengal is just one opportunity. We are presently deploying it across. We are trying to basically convince all the 16 states where we do business to deploy this.

我們還做了什麼，我們與那裡的政府合作，為消費者推出所有這些預付卡，基本上使用 EbixCash 預付卡，消費者，例如西孟加拉邦交通部門，決定提供折扣，略微折扣他們的價格。最終的結果是現在你有一個區域供那些乘坐公共汽車旅行的人開始使用該預付卡，僅僅因為它可以獲得一些折扣，而且它使他們能夠在公共汽車上使用它等等。因此我們能夠將自己定位在——西孟加拉邦只是一個機會。我們目前正在部署它。我們正試圖基本上說服我們開展業務的所有 16 個州部署它。

Another good example is take the largest state of India, which is a Uttar Pradesh. Now Uttar Pradesh is the largest state in population and metrics that some of our -- the neighboring countries to India, whether it's Pakistan or anybody out there. And if you look at the -- what we are trying to do out there, UP government distributes a lot of -- they dole out a lot of money to widows, to the underprivileged through the government program every month actually. We are trying to do that through working with another bank.

另一個很好的例子是印度最大的邦北方邦。現在北方邦是人口和指標最多的州，我們的一些 - 印度的鄰國，無論是巴基斯坦還是那裡的任何人。如果你看看——我們正在嘗試做的事情，UP 政府分配了很多——他們實際上每個月都會通過政府計劃向寡婦、弱勢群體發放大量資金。我們正試圖通過與另一家銀行合作來做到這一點。

We're trying to deploy all these cards that would be issued with the consumers picture on top of that card so that when any money is doled out, it is done on the basis of that comparing that picture, comparing their biometrics, their thumb imprints and from there, having EbixCash card, whereby the government can now track the money that they doled out, how was it really used? Is it coming back into the economy or not.

我們正在嘗試部署所有這些將在卡片頂部印有消費者照片的卡片，這樣當任何錢被分發時，它是在比較圖片、比較他們的生物特徵、他們的拇指印記的基礎上完成的從那裡，有了 EbixCash 卡，政府現在可以通過它追踪他們發放的錢，它是如何使用的？它是否會回到經濟中。

So those are the kind of examples of clients that we are now adding with respect to the prepaid card business. So it's a business that ultimately, look, we have a pretty substantial market share. And we kind of feel now we are trying to make this into a good income opportunity also. But we want to do it at our terms. We're focused on income. So we're not going to just go in into the markets and increase market share just by reducing our commissions or passing on more commissions to agents. We want to actually maximize our income while selling more cards. Does it make sense. I just -- what I talked to you about... Chris?

因此，這些就是我們現在在預付卡業務方面增加的客戶示例。所以這是一個最終，看，我們擁有相當可觀的市場份額的業務。我們有點覺得現在我們也在努力將其變成一個很好的收入機會。但我們想按照我們的條件去做。我們專注於收入。因此，我們不會只是通過減少佣金或將更多佣金轉嫁給代理商來進入市場並增加市場份額。我們實際上希望在銷售更多卡的同時最大化我們的收入。是否有意義。我只是——我跟你談過的……克里斯？

Yes, it does. Along with the bus system, how is that coming as far as the IDMS [ph] as it is as you bring it out into new state bus system.

是的，它確實。與總線系統一起，當您將它帶入新的狀態總線系統時，它如何到達 IDMS [ph]。

We are continuing to deploy all the ITMS systems and all the deals that you -- that we've been announcing, whether we announce Andra, whether we announce West Bengal, Recently, we announced a large -- one of the largest deals we have done, MSRTC, Maharashtra Strait Roadway Transport Corporation, wherein we have 2 phases, we first will deploy IDMS across, I think, 19,000 buses, then it is across approximately 38,000 buses overall. So it's a very large state with 38,000 buses flying where everybody would be able to use the smart card, and we get paid on a per ticket basis. It's a very simple business model.

我們將繼續部署所有 ITMS 系統和所有交易，您 - 我們一直在宣布，無論我們是否宣布 Andra，我們是否宣布西孟加拉邦，最近，我們宣布了一項大型 - 我們擁有的最大交易之一完成後，MSRTC，馬哈拉施特拉海峽公路運輸公司，其中我們有兩個階段，我們首先將在 19,000 輛公交車上部署 IDMS，然後將在大約 38,000 輛公交車上部署。所以這是一個非常大的州，擁有 38,000 輛公共汽車，每個人都可以使用智能卡，我們按每張票獲得報酬。這是一個非常簡單的商業模式。

Virtually every ticket, we don't really care whether it's -- of course, they will be able to use -- they can use our prepaid cards, but whether they're using any UPI, whether they're using Paytm or whether they're using virtually Google Pay or anybody. We're going to make money on every ticket. That's our business model, and that's how we are deploying. We are in the midst of a few very large interesting deals right now with some of the states that we don't have. And hopefully, I have something positive to report in coming weeks and months on that front.

幾乎每張票，我們都不在乎它是否——當然，他們將能夠使用——他們可以使用我們的預付卡，但他們是否使用任何 UPI，他們是否使用 Paytm 或者他們是否幾乎使用 Google Pay 或任何人。我們要在每張票上賺錢。這是我們的商業模式，也是我們的部署方式。我們現在正在與一些我們沒有的州進行一些非常大的有趣交易。希望在接下來的幾周和幾個月裡，我能在這方面有一些積極的報告。

And ladies and gentlemen, that is all the time we have for questions today, and this will conclude today's conference call. We thank you for your participation, and you may now disconnect.

女士們，先生們，這就是我們今天提問的全部時間，這將結束今天的電話會議。我們感謝您的參與，您現在可以斷開連接。