Thank you very much. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. We will take our first question from the line of Arpit Shah from Stallion Asset. Please go ahead.

I just wanted to congratulate the management for this quarter's performance, 40% EBITDA margins in a quarter where it was faced with a lot of macro headwinds. And it is almost done this quarter's EBITDA is almost equivalent to FY '23's full-year EBITDA. I am just glad to see such kind of execution, such kind of progress in terms of execution that the management has shown us. I had a question regarding the VFS IPO, which is probably on cards, which is going to be coming in the next couple of quarters or so. I just want to understand how do you stack up against VFS? It is probably the valuation which is running around the street is about a multi-billion dollar, something around $8-$10 billion kind of an IPO. And how do we stack up against something like a VFS? And I just wanted to understand; we have seen phenomenal growth in the last couple of years. Even this quarter it was 11 lakh applications, more than 36% growth Y-o-Y in a tough macro environment. So, now how do we go ahead from here? Do we sustain this kind of growth rate going ahead or do we now step up beyond these outsourcing? Do we now start doing better things with better margins, higher margins? What is the roadmap? How do we become Rs. 1,000 crores PAT company let us say from current levels? How much time do you envisage seeing it currently? And just congratulations on a phenomenal performance, Thank you so much.

Arpit, first of all, I think better margins, so we have already achieved, if you have seen the Visa business around 40% EBITDA margins. And on an overall basis, 28.7% on consolidated basis. So, I think our immediate and long-term objective is to maintain. We have increased from 35% in the last quarter and last year we were at 29%. So, we have now reached 40%. So, our immediate target is to maintain that. We don't know about this competition, but definitely more companies getting listed in the market will be good for us. There will be more coverage. Right now, a lot of investors say that we are the only listed company in this space globally. It will be very good for the analyst community to benchmark us. What we know is that globally, I think we have achieved around 16%-17% global market share. I feel that we are the second largest company globally in this business. And as you have seen now, if you compare the numbers 5 years back, our revenue has grown 5x, our EBITDA has grown 15x. We as a company, we know execution and that is what we are focused on. Keeping our heads down, we are focused on execution. So, definitely we feel that whatever numbers we have achieved, we can maintain. And what guidance or what we are telling people is that now with the increased base also, next 3-4 years, we would continue to grow 20%-25% in terms of profitability, revenue, etc. And there are multiple opportunities in terms of new tenders coming out in the Visa field itself. And only as we spoke, only 50% of the global market is outsourced. So, right now, in the outsourced market, only there are multiple tenders that are coming out. Some we have won, some we have deployed, some are at different stages. So, as you see, we have done 11.36 lakh applications, a 33% increase compared to similar quarter last year. So, definitely, there is a big leeway for growth going forward. So, definitely, whatever we have achieved, we will maintain, and we will look forward to consolidating the market.

Got it. And if I could just speak about seasonality, typically if I have whatever I see in terms of EBITDA or the PAT numbers for Quarter 1, if you go for the full year, it is typically 4.5-5x our Quarter 1 EBITDA or PAT. Should we see a similar kind of seasonality going ahead even for this year? Or do you think the seasonality has changed post acquisitions and where you have different kinds of countries now participating that it tweaks the seasonality? Or do you think that the run rate that we used to see from Quarter 1 to let us say the full year, that number still maintain?

See, post-COVID, a lot of things have changed. Trends have changed. As you see, the global travel trend has changed. So, definitely there are different timelines that we see, but typically quarter one as you know, a lot of outbound travel from India also happens during this time. So, definitely it is more. So, I think Quarter 3, Quarter 4, probably, I don't remember exactly, is a little lesser. But yes, as you have seen in the last few years, the numbers we have achieved, acquisition etc. So, globally, we are operating in multiple geographies. So, definitely there is some high season somewhere else, but Quarter 1 definitely has been good for us.

11 lakh applications. Congratulations on that. We have seen a new high number of applications. I thought we would saturate around a million per quarter, but I think we just surpassed that by another one lakh applications. Congratulations. Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Thank you very much to give me opportunity. Sir, what is our plan to use Rs, 1,100 crores cash immediately? Any acquisition on card or any new contract you find with any country which you would like to tell today?

As you know that last year itself, we did upwards of Rs. 1,200 crore in acquisitions. We deployed our money in that and that is getting positive. Now, if you see this again, there is a cash flowing company. We are Rs. 1,100 crore plus net cash position. So, definitely, we are looking at different opportunities. Right now, it is consolidating our previous acquisitions. So, as and when something gets materialized, we will definitely let you know.

But immediately, no such acquisition on card, right?

We have an M&A team that keeps on looking. As and when something gets finalized, we will tell you.

Sir, you tell you acquire 100% stake in Citizenship Invest, which offer leading player in residency and citizenship. In actual, what is the business model of that company?

I think we have already explained this multiple times in the past also, in the last quarter results also. But I can tell you again that this is a company that is into long-term visas. We are currently into short-term and business visas. This company facilitates residency and passports for different countries around the world.

From where we got more growth in digital service or visa service?

You have seen the numbers that on a consol level, on a revenue basis, we did 200% plus growth on the Digital Service business. But EBITDA, as you see combined, we did 55% growth in EBITDA. So, both the businesses have seen growth.

Thank you. We will take our next question from the line of Vansh Solanki from RSPN Ventures. Please go ahead.

My questions are on the margin side. If we see the margins of the Visa and Consular segment and digital services segment separately on a Q-o-Q basis, then visa services are around 500 bps plus margin. So, I want to understand that in Q1, the management converted the more partnership model into self-run model during Q1. And also, digital services, the EBITDA margin has declined. Even ASPL is still a lower margin subsidiary, but it has full impact on a Quarter 4. So, why the margin is declined in Q1?

You are correct. In the Visa business, we have converted few more businesses where the partnership model was changed to self-managed business, which helped us in improvement of EBITDA margin. Whereas in the digital business, the major portion of the turnover has come from the acquisition we did of Aadifidelis, where the margins are about 4% EBITDA. So, the average has come down because of that. Growth has increased, but the average has come down of the digital business.

But the digital business has already, ASPL is already considered fully on a Quarter 4, I guess?

Yes.

Yes. Still margin is decreasing in Q1?

Yes, because in Quarter 4, they get the incentives. If you understand the business of Aadifidelis, they are into loan distribution and for the whole year, their performance on the basis of that, they get incentives. So, the margins were higher during Q4.

And I just want to understand that how many percent of stores, the connection points are in a partnership model as of now and self-owned model? Can you just give me a bifurcation of both?

So, mostly all have now been converted into our own self-managed model. The last major one was China, which was done in the Q1.

So, if I understand correctly, then EBITDA margin will be the same till the Q1. Am I right?

Yes, that is what our expectation is.

And just one last bookkeeping question. Can you just give me the revenue contribution for ASPL, iDATA and Citizenship business for Q1 and also EBITDA margin if possible?

So, approximately around Aadifidelis is about Rs. 150 crores. iDATA is about 72 or so. Citizenship was about Rs. 11 crores in this.

And EBITDA margin, ASPL, you told 4% approx. and about the others?

That is right.

Others for Citizenship and iDATA?

They are more or less as per our Visa business, around 30% - 40%.

Thank you, sir. And congratulations for your future. All the best.

Thank you. We will take our next question from the line of Amit Chandra from HDFC Securities. Please go ahead.

Yes, thanks for the opportunity. So, my first question is on the strong Y-o-Y growth that we have seen, if you can break down that into what would be organic and what would be inorganic in that. So, 44% Y-o-Y, if you can break that down into organic and inorganic growth? And also secondly, the margin expansion that we have seen is also a function of acquiring the higher margin iDATA business. So, the EBITDA margin also, if you can break down? And also, if you can explain the fundamental reason behind what led to the margin expansion, specifically by shifting into the self-run model versus the partnership model? And what are the advantages of self-run versus partnership? But in terms of the self-run model, what kind of assets that we own, how many offices we have across, which are owned, and which are rented, if you can give some clarification on that?

So, Amit, if you see from Y-o-Y basis, Q1 versus Q1, the growth from new acquisitions have been in revenue about 35%, which has contributed and has also contributed to about 30% in EBITDA margins, if you look at that. And as you said, the advantage of moving from partnership to self-managed, the biggest advantage on the same was the margin which was kept by the partner has now been coming in our own books. And for that, we have either taken over the existing establishment of the partner or we have opened our own offices in those countries. And we have not purchased any assets as property, but it is all the furniture and the office interiors and everything. Those have been acquired.

So, how many offices you must have acquired or taken over in that process? And what, so if you just can explain the commercials, how it worked earlier versus now, because the margin expansion because of that has been pretty strong and we are not able to understand exactly how the commercials have been working there, so I know we have done a good job here, but just for clarification, if we can understand that?

So, earlier when it was a partnership model, the direct costs of the logistics as well as maintaining the offices and other was paid to the partner, which was going in our direct cost of services, wherein now that has come out and the maintenance of the rentals of the place and the employee cost is getting directly debited to our respective heads of expense now. So, if you see over the last year or so, the cost of services is coming down as a percentage of the revenue. And you will see the cost has gone up in terms of the employee costs and the other expenses. That is the administrative expenses.

So, we are saying most of the office running cost is now more like an OPEX model, right?

That is right.

And how many offices we have in a rental or own model, if you can explain across the country?

So, practically 100% are basically on a rental basis only.

Amit, I think we have explained in the past, in the last one year, 90% of our contracts have been renewed. Next 2-3 years, some of those will come up, but we have a clear visibility on the next 4-5 years, 6-7 years of our revenue. Even we explained, we won some contracts with the US government last year that are for 10 years. So, we have clear visibility. We have a very strong position as a company as of now.

So, because the trend has been, major outsourcing has been done, because I think this number was 10%-20% a few years back, which has gone up to 50% in terms of outsourcing. So, we are the major beneficiaries of that or because the market has expanded. So, some other players or the competition also come up or it continues to be only VFS and BLS kind of?

For us only, honestly, it has been 15 years. It took us a long time to come here. New players, I welcome them to enter the industry. First of all, I think, as you know, the qualification criteria and all is pretty strict. And we are dealing with monopolistic players and see both the things have happened. We have won most of the growth that has come in is also mostly from the contracts that we have won from the competition, but also market has expanded a bit. Newer client governments have also outsourced, newer services have been outsourced, newer geographies have been outsourced. So, it is a mix and every year, the business is also growing,14%, as you know, year-on-year, there is a CAGR growth in terms of travel. So, a lot of factors have led to this growth where we are at. As I have explained to you, we are working on 10 different factors at any given point of time to achieve growth and profitability of the company.

And Shikhar, in the Schengen area, how many contracts we have in terms of the global contracts? And how many we are bidding as of now?

We are working currently with more than 40 client governments in more than 70 countries. And there are multiple Schengen governments. I need to count how many exact numbers we have. But we are working for Italy, Germany, Spain, Czech, Portugal, Poland, and Hungary. So, we are working for multiple, many more governments, I can't recall right now. But we have in the last few years managed to penetrate a lot of the Schengen governments. We are working for the US government, Indian government, Philippines government, Brazil government. That is how you see we have achieved all this growth has come from all these factors. So, in the next few years, many countries are coming out with their tenders, new governments are coming out with contracts. So, we are bidding for it actively. And we feel now we have a presence globally, a good team on the ground and we feel that if we can maintain our execution, then definitely we can win more business.

We will take our next question from the line of Gopalakrishnan from Uttranush Investments. Please go ahead.

Yes, thanks for the opportunity. And congratulations to the entire BLS team for this stellar performance. Really happy. Now, I just have one question regarding this profit growth versus sales growth. It has been a phenomenal run for the company. For example, trailing 12 months, your sales growth is 35% and profit growth is 58%. And for 3 years also, it is 37% and 66%. So, sales growth is around the 35%-37% range and profit growth is in the range of 58%-66%. Now, my question is, now that you have done the partner to ownership model transition, have you reached a saturation point or are there any plans to improve this profit margin? If so, what are those plans? That is one thing. And the second thing is about this other income. I saw in the annual report other income comprises of interest from deposits and sale of securities and all of that. Does it continue the same way or is there any other addition to the other income? Thank you.

Thank you, Gopalakrishnan. See, for your first question on the growth, as we discussed that we have changed our business model and practically we have converted all the partners into our self-managed offices. We see now these margins will now get stabilized over the period now and growth will still be there because we are aggressively looking at new contracts, we are looking at new M&A options for growth. So, we see that we should be able to maintain a decent growth over the next couple of years and somewhere maintain our profit margins at these levels. And as for your second question about the other income, yes, because as you know, we have a healthy cash balance on our books, which is more than Rs. 1,100 crores as on today, that all has been kept in debt funds or fixed deposits and whatever we earn on that is being part of our other income.

Actually, my question was like regarding this profit growth, what you are saying is, you have almost reached the saturation level and beyond this, the same margin will be maintained going forward. Is my understanding correct?

No, I am saying that the margin will stabilize at this level, but growth will still be there.

Understood. And then UKFTA, any impact? I know last time you told it is a very small, minuscule portion of the business, but now that the FTA has been signed and are there any tailwinds from that?

No, it doesn't impact us in any way.

Thank you. That is all.

Thank you.

Thank you. We will take our next question from the line of Dinesh Kulkarni from Finsight. Please go ahead.

Yes. Thank you, sir. And a really great set of numbers. Congratulations on that. So, two specific questions. One is if you see, iDATA was included, became part of the BLS in July last year. So, it was not part in the first quarter. So, if you could just tell me for the Visa business, if we do apples for apples comparison, how the organic growth look like? I know the consolidated number seems very high because we have acquired other businesses in digital, but if I just see for visa, how does that compare?

So, see, if you look at only on an organic basis, our EBITDA has grown at 31%. The revenue was around the same level, but the margins have improved.

So, are you seeing any additional growth in the acquired businesses over the last 1 year or in the standalone deal with entities? Like where is the growth coming from?

So, we are anticipating going forward, the growth will come from, if you look at the Visa business, one from the tourism growth globally, which we anticipate should be in the range of 8%-10% CAGR. And the balance will come through selling of our value-added services to the travelers. So, we look at that as the growth parameter for us on existing businesses.

Sounds great, sir. And I am sure you're looking for more acquisitions with the cash reserves we have definitely. Just trying to understand, sir, say we are operating in so many countries, and I would like to understand where is the niche here? Is it the technology which we are operating or is it the processes which we employ? Or is it the, like how you are handling the manpower and the workload? Like, why should BLS get an opportunity even when as you mentioned, other players are also getting into this. Why should we win versus others? Like, where is the niche then if you could explain?

Well, players are getting into it. Some investor had on this call asked us this question. So, as I have said, there are three people are qualified for this bid and obviously, technology is something we are an Indian company. That is something that we have an edge on globally and the delivery that we are doing globally. So, that is the reason.

Yes, but so like as a client, what is the first preference? Is it, I am sure the Indian tech company may not be the only preference they would have, right? Like, you understand what my question is, like it is in terms of why you should win versus others? Or is it okay, anyone sets up another technology company and gives this kind of service, like how fair chances they will also have?

See, we are in this industry for last 15-20 years. So, our experience, our delivery, our reference from client governments, our platform that we are doing multiple factors, not one.

Sounds good. And it seems you are winning great and hope you are going to do this. Thank you very much.

Thank you. We will take our next question from the line of Vivek Gautam from GS Investment. Please go ahead.

Yes, congratulations, sir, on consistent good performance. My question is, is a case of peak margin for our company, especially in view of the fact that many nations have become very sort of xenophobic and not encouraging the migration to their countries for jobs and for student visa also becoming difficult. So, what impact it is having on our case? And second thing is about, what would be the impact of our e-visas and visa on arrival services for our company? And last question is about how do we stand with VFS and our differentiator? They are the bigger players and sort of better image they have on social media also. Thank you.

So, as you said, countries are getting stricter in their processing. On the other hand, they are talking about e-visas. So, there is a contradiction on both sides. The countries who are looking strict on their visa rules are the one where we work and they are controlling. Today, we have a bottleneck more on the number of applications which embassies can process. And once they de-bottleneck their processing, our volumes, by default, will continue going up only. So, we don't see any, at the moment, concern on the volumes per se. And as far as e-visas are concerned, they are for some limited countries which are working on e-visas and that is a different market altogether.

Do we get impacted because of that, sir?

Not really, because if you look at the developed nations and developing nations, they still go through the proper process of scrutinizing the visa applications and then providing the visas.

The question about the comparison with our major competition and the social media presence, which is there for us?

See, we compete with VFS and other competitors in all the bidding because this is a tender process. And in that, we are as strong as anybody else.

And sir, lastly, there is not much institution interest in our company in spite we are coming out with great numbers. So, would you like your IR or your company's IR Head to participate more in the analyst conferences and invite more institutional investors with you because the numbers are consistently good, but unfortunately, except for LIC, not much of an interest of late, sir?

Yes, but I believe if you can participate in the analyst conferences and meet the research houses, it will be better for us and you are being the majority shareholder, sir. You can think of that, sir. And ask your IR firm also to be more proactive in that regard, sir.

That is right. That is what we have started doing over the last, I would say, a year or so. So, let us see. But we have started attending those conferences.

We need to sort of pay attention to our social media presence also, specifically in our line of business. So, that somehow gets negative things get propagated out of the way. But positive things are not that much, sir. We have to focus on that, sir.

Our Investor Relations person is here only, and I think he will take your input.

Yes. Thank you, sir. Keep up the good work.

Thank you, Vivek.

Thank you. We will take our next question from the line of Sachin, an Individual Investor. Please go ahead.

Hi. Many congratulations. I am a long-term shareholder in the company for over 8 years, and it is the best performing in terms of revenues, profitability, as well as governance as well. So, many congratulations for all the things that you guys have achieved. So, just in terms of, is there any restriction for us to do like a forward integration and get into the travel industry? Yes, probably become like a travel agent and then, route visas and all of that. Do client governments actually restrict us from getting into that sort of thing? Or has the company thought about something of that sort?

No. We are actually focused on our government, like our business, which is into government outsourcing services and that’s exclusive contracts. So, this is what we are focused on. And this is what we are talking about.

But there is no restrictions from client governments?

We have not explored that checklist because our objective is to remain in the line of business where we are in.

All right. And also, in terms of China, we saw news that the Chinese, travel visas for Chinese folks traveling into India has restarted. Can you tell us how that trend is at the moment?

Right. And one last question is on the dividend policy. So, we are seeing the profits go up, but I am not sure if investors know about the dividend policy. Can you tell us, last time I asked this question, you said the Board generally takes an appropriate decision, but is there like a percentage or something that is set aside for shareholders?

So, I think, first of all, we are utilizing, as you know, we have done Rs. 1,200 crores worth of acquisitions last year. And also from the day the company got listed, we have been paying dividends. Our policy is already there on the website as well, which is up to 30% of the profits that we are paying as dividend. So, we are continuing to pay dividends, from the day the company got listed. And we are continuing to invest the money of the company in the growth of the company, which is acquisitions, technology, etc.

Right. No complaints, just in terms of what it was.

Thank you so much. Thank you.

Thank you. Next question is from the line of Dilip, an Individual Investor. Please go ahead.

Yes, congratulations for a good number in this quarter, even the previous quarters and years also, I have just a couple of questions. One is that, in your investor presentation, you have mentioned that outsourcing and your in-house services are 50-50 will become in 2029. Right now, is there a chance that 50 will become in-house will become the 30-10 or maybe finally, they would not like to do it because the cost for the government is increasing much more than that? That is one question. And second question that I don't find, whether you have a presence in France, because that is a destination where all inbound traffic is very high for that country. So, I guess there was a query whether you also have a presence there and do those kind of services?

So, definitely, if you see from the last few years, outsourcing has increased. Before, it was zero outsourcing, now, it has come up to 50% level. And definitely going forward, outsourcing will be more. Regarding different countries, including the name that you mentioned, we are continuing to try a bid for contracts globally. And as and when we win contracts with different governments, we will let you know.

And the last question is that you have a share of about 10% as volume. So, probably when your 50 gets reduced further, then I can presume that your share will automatically increase?

Definitely, if the outsourcing market increases, we will also get better share in outsourcing.

Or can I presume that you are taking effort to increase from 10% to further 12%, 13%, 15%, whatever it is, who are your nearest competitor or who are it globally?

Thank you. Next question is from the line of Vansh Solanki from RSPN Ventures. Please go ahead.

Hello, sir. Just a follow up question that 11.4 million applications are on a console basis. But you just mentioned in a call that Citizenship are a long-term visa, like standalone is a short- term visa. So, can you just give the bifurcation of both that how is the standalone and how much is from?

99% of the applications are from tourist and business visa. So, the Citizenship Invest volume is very less and revenue is very high. There is a very different category of applications. So, out of this 11.9 lakh, 99% is of the core business, which is really short-term and long-term business visa.

Thank you, sir. That is from my side.

Thank you. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, due to time constraints, that was the last speaker for today. I now hand the conference over to management for closing comments. Over to you, sir.

Thank you all for joining our Earnings Call for Q1 FY '26. Thank you so much. Have a good day.

Thank you. On behalf of Ambit Capital, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us and you may now disconnect your lines. Thank you.

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