Business Model

BLS International operates its business through two major verticals: Visa & Consular Services(75%) and Digital Services(25%). The Company partners with over 46 client governments and operates across 70+ countries worldwide.

Visa & consular services

BLS offers a comprehensive range of service solutions encompassing outsourced visa processing, document verification, attestation, passport services, e-visa solutions and associated services

Why Government Outsources to BLS?

• User-Pay Model: service fees are collected directly from applicants (users) rather than relying solely on funding from the governments they serve, meaning the government saves money.
• BLS handles front-end administrative tasks like document verification and fee collection, freeing government officials from repetitive paperwork. This allows diplomats and staff to focus on critical responsibilities such as security assessments and decision-making.
• Specialized Services: BLS provides specialized technical services like biometrics, AI-powered e-visas, and secure identity management using its established global infrastructure. This eliminates the need for governments to develop complex technology platforms from scratch.

Courtesy: Q3FY2026 Earnings Presentation

Financial Snapshot

Topline Growth

• Visa Volume Growth: The growth is majorly tied to global travel recovery after COVID period. Another growth factor for the company were major contract wins and geographical expansion by the company.
• Net Revenue Per Application: the rise in metric was led due to increase in service fees, higher value-added service conversion, higher charges in re-tendered contracts
• Shifting from Partner-Run Model to Self-Managed Centers: By owning the center, they capture 100% of the revenue instead of sharing a large cut with a partner.
• Inorganic growth through acquisitions.

Margin Expansion

• Shifting from Partner-Run Model to Self-Managed Centers: While this adds some cost (rent/salaries), the retained revenue is significantly higher, directly boosting the margin.
• Net Revenue Per Application: The NRPA has significantly increased from INR 1638 (FY2022) to INR 2903 (FY2025).
• Operating Leverage: Their operations involve high fixed costs related to rent, IT services etc. As the number of applications surged from 15 Lakhs to 37.5 Lakhs (post-COVID travel), the fixed costs stayed relatively stable.
• Margin-Accretive Acquisitions: BLS had acquired iDATA that turned out to be a successful acquisition for them, operating at 38% to 40% EBITDA Margin.

Digital Services

This vertical operates as a network of physical centers in rural and semi-urban areas that provide digital access to banking, government services, and e-commerce. It is managed by the subsidiary BLS E-Services Ltd and focuses on three main areas:

Business Correspondent (BC) services

BLS acts as an intermediary for large banks like SBI, PNB, and Kotak Mahindra. Instead of the bank opening a full branch in a village, BLS appoints a representative as a Business Correspondent.

• Operations: These points allow customers to open accounts, deposit cash, and withdraw money using Aadhaar-based biometric authentication.
• Revenue: BLS earns a commission from the bank for every transaction processed. With over 45,000 centers, this creates a massive volume of transactions, grossing transaction value of over ₹27,000 crores in Q3 FY2026 alone.

E-Government Services

This segment helps people get official documents and register for government schemes.

• Operations: BLS manages centers (such as Sewa Kendras) where citizens go to apply for Aadhaar cards, PAN cards, birth/death certificates, and property registrations.
• Contracts: This business is driven by long-term government contracts. For example, they recently won a major contract from UIDAI to manage Aadhaar centers across several districts in India for the next six years.

Assisted E-Services

This part of the business helps people who are not comfortable using the internet to shop or book travel themselves.

• Operations: A local agent uses the BLS platform to book train/bus tickets or order products from sites like Amazon and Flipkart for a customer.
• Cross-Selling: Because people already visit these centers for banking or government IDs, BLS uses the same footprint to sell insurance, travel bookings, and mobile recharges.

Margin Contraction

• Low-Margin Acquisition Mix: FY25 included consolidation of Aadifidelis, which operates at ~4% EBITDA margin. While it significantly boosted revenue, its lower profitability diluted the blended digital EBITDA margin.
• Volume-Based Commission Model: The digital business (BC + loan distribution) operates on thin commissions per transaction and shares economics with CSP operators. This essentially caps margins compared to the high-margin, fee-based Visa segment.
• Rapid Expansion Costs: Touchpoints expanded from 1,00,000+ to 1,42,000+, which required investments in onboarding, technology integration, backend support, and field management. These upfront operating costs temporarily compressed margins as revenue scaled faster than operating leverage could fully offset.

Key Event Timeline

• 2005-2015: Started their operations with visa processing for European countries like Portugal, Austria, Belgium across India. Began service operations for Indian Embassies in Saudi Arabia & Singapore
• 2016-2018: Listed on NSE and BSE and secured major contracts including global visa outsourcing for Spain, citizen services for Afghanistan's Embassy, and visa processing for Italy in Singapore. Strategic partnerships with Sopra Steria and UKVI for UK visa renewals. Acquired Starfin India Pvt. Ltd.
• 2019-2020: Secured contracts with Vietnam Embassy in India, Portugal across Russia, and Brazil Embassy in China and Lebanon. Commenced visa application services for Lebanon Embassy across Indian subcontinent.
• 2021-2022: Secured authorizations from Germany's Federal Foreign Office for visa processing across North America, Mexico, and the USA, while expanding services for Thailand across India, Kenya, and South Africa. Acquired Zero Mass Private Ltd.
• 2023: Renewed critical contracts for Spain's global visa processing and India's visa services in Canada, while securing new agreements including Slovakia's global visa outsourcing contract. Entered into contract with UIDAI, marking its strategic entry into national identity infrastructure services.
• 2024-Present: expanded visa operations for Hungary across Jordan, Canada, Algeria, and Oman, while securing major global contracts from Slovakia (80+ countries) and Cyprus (15+ countries), alongside a significant order from India's MEA for VACs across China. Acquired iDATA, Citizenship Invest, and Aadifidelis Solutions.

Sector Tailwinds

Global Travel & Aviation Sector Tailwinds:

Global travel and tourism have rebounded strongly after COVID, with passenger traffic and RPK surpassing pre pandemic levels and projected to grow at ~8 % CAGR through 2029. Airline capacity expansion, rising passenger load factors of over 83 %, and strong regional growth led by Asia Pacific and the Middle East indicate steady demand momentum.

This structural recovery in global air travel supports higher visa processing volumes and provides a favorable long term tailwind for BLS’s Visa and Consular business.

The Decoupling of Adjudication:

Governments worldwide are increasingly separating administrative visa processing from legal adjudication, outsourcing front-end functions such as biometric enrollment, document verification, and fee collection to specialised private operators. This structural decoupling is occurring within a global Tourist Visa Outsourcing Services market valued at approximately $2.41 billion in 2025 and projected to grow at a 9.2 % CAGR through 2033, reflecting sustained institutional adoption of the outsourced model.

By externalising high-volume operational tasks while centralising final decision-making, governments reduce consular overhead and improve administrative efficiency. For private operators, this results in a high entry barrier, a recurring revenue model where they manage the operational layer of the visa system, with governments retaining sovereign control over final adjudication.

Risks

Tender-Based Business and Susceptibility to Regulatory Changes

The company works on a tender-based model, which is susceptible to disruptions caused by regulatory changes such as changes in immigration policies, data protection laws, outsourcing regulations, tightening of pricing framework, etc.

To mitigate this risk, the company is diversifying its services and expanding geographically to reduce regulatory and contract concentration.

Slowdown in Global Travel

The visa processing and outsourcing industry is inherently sensitive to fluctuations in global travel trends. Any slowdown in global travel due to geopolitical tensions, natural disasters, economic recessions, or the pandemic can reduce the volume of visa applications, directly eroding their revenue streams.

To mitigate this risk, the company has diversified geographically, pursued strategic acquisitions, and expanded into complementary service lines, reducing dependence on any single market and partially cushioning earnings during travel downturns.

Operational and Technological Risks

Visa outsourcing firms handle sensitive personal data, making them prime targets. for cyberattacks. Data breaches can lead to severe financial and reputational consequences. Additionally, system outages or technological disruptions can delay the visa processing.

As a government-facing operator, the company adheres to strict data security and compliance standards embedded in tender requirements across jurisdictions. Ongoing contract renewals and new mandate wins reflect adherence to these standards, supported by secure IT systems and business continuity frameworks designed to ensure operational resilience.

Competitive Pressure

The visa outsourcing market is dominated by a few large global players. Intense competition for government tenders can lead to aggressive pricing, resulting in margin compression and profitability pressure.

While the core services are highly standardized and at first glance there seems to be no moat w.r.t. technology, brand, IP, etc., there exists an institutional and structural / economic niche. There is a high barrier to entry, an incumbency advantage in re-tenders, scale-based operating leverage, and once a company operates across 60+ countries, it becomes a part of sovereign infrastructure.