Ebix Inc. Chief Executive Officer Robin Raina received a $1.8 million bonus last week, even as a Sept. 30 deadline looms for the company to repay a loan of more than $600 million to a syndicate of US banks without having the cash on hand.
Ebix, based in Johns Creek, Georgia, disclosed the bonus in a regulatory filing Monday. It said that $1.2 million of the loan was paid on Sept. 19, the day the board awarded Raina the bonus. The remainder will be paid in October, according to the filing. As of June 30, Ebix reported having $62 million of cash on its balance sheet.
Over the past two years, Ebix has amended its loan agreement with a consortium of US banks, led by Regions Financial Corp., multiple times to buy more time to pay off the loan.
The company has been trying to spin off its India-based unit, EbixCash, in an initial public offering which was projected to be one of the largest in that country. With the infusion of hundreds of millions of dollars, Ebix could then pay down its bank loan. But the IPO has been delayed several times, in part because of questions from regulators.
Hindenburg Research, which published a critical report about the finances of the Adani Group of companies earlier this year, criticized Ebix last year, describing the EbixCash unit, a money-transfer business, as a “house of cards.”
An Ebix spokesman didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
