All you need to know about BLS International: Details here

18 Feb 2022 , 05:00 PM

With over 16 years of experience and has established itself as a trusted global tech-enabled services partner for governments and citizens, BLS International is amongst the top three global players in this domain. The company is a preferred partner for Embassies and Governments across the world, having an impeccable reputation for setting benchmarks in the domain of visa, passport, consular, e-governance, attestation, biometric, e-visa and retail services. It also provides citizen services to state and provincial governments across Asia, Africa, Europe, South America, North America & the Middle East.

Investment Rationale

Strong Balance Sheet and Return Ratios

The company has strong balance sheet with zero debt and Cash and equivalent of over Rs371 crore. Driven by opening up of economies and pick up in travel industry across the globe. The company saw a significant growth of 78.6% in its operational revenue from Rs333.8 crore in 9MFY21 to Rs596 crore in 9MFY22, reflecting on the EBITDA and PAT which were up by 142.9% and 177.4% respectively as on Q3FY22.

Superior technology infrastructure and services

BLS is a preferred customer in India as well as in the international markets due to its robust technical infrastructure and ability to provide maximum data security through its personal as well as cloud-based platform. Services includes verification and attestation of documents, biometrics, e-visa and other value-added services.

Expanding Global Networks

BLS is currently operating in 66 countries with a network of 12,287 application centers globally. Company has the ability to win marquee contracts with having $1.5 billion worth contracts under renewal in next 2 years across the countries. Recently the company has bagged contracts with royal Thai embassy for visa services and signed contract with embassy of India in Kuwait for consular, passport and visa services.

Business Overview

With the opening up of the global travel industry and reduction in positive cases, being a leading global player in the visa outsourcing service industry with over ~52 million applications processed and winning contracts across the globe, BLS International will continue to see the growth in upwards trajectory in their Visa and Consular services, E-governance service in India and other countries and other citizen services like banking correspondent and assisted e-commerce.

Opportunities across business segments

BLS can find significant opportunities and high growth potential in helping the governments across the globe for managing their visa processing. In 2010, 78% of the visas were processed by the government itself, the ratio declined to 69% in 2018 and it is expected to further decline to 50% by 2025.

Niche Business and growing industry

The visa processing industry is niche and has high entry barriers which gives advantage to players like BLS International. Most services offered by governments across the globe are still semi-automated with a low penetration of cutting-edge technologies, outsourcing to a specialized partner can reduce delivery time, increase efficiency which is win-win proposition for the government both from the cost point and service quality point.

Risks

Third wave of Covid-19: Tourism activities might act as a catalyst for the expected spread of covid-19. If there are travel restrictions placed again, the business would get affected.

Outlook

Although travel industry is significantly impacted due to Covid-19, recovery is visible and vaccination drive would further propel it. Given its lean business model, net cash positive, high FCF, huge growth opportunity with strong balance sheet, the outlook looks positive.

Financial Summary

Consolidated (Rs in cr)	FY18	FY19	FY20	FY21
Revenue	789	804	786	478
YoY growth (%)	24.28	1.87	-2.20	-39.15
EBITDA	162.8	151	96.4	58.4
EBITDA margin (%)	20.53	17.84	12.06	11.74
PAT	96.5	105.2	52	50
EPS	9.4	10.3	5.1	4.9

Click here for report