Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Mohit Chandani from Ambit Capital. Thank you, and over to you.
Thank you, Yashasri. Good afternoon. On behalf of Ambit Capital, I thank the management of BLS International Services Limited for the opportunity to host your Q1 FY2026 earnings conference call. We have the following members of management with us today: Mr. Nikhil Gupta, Managing Director; Mr. Shikhar Aggarwal, Joint Managing Director; Mr. Amit Sudhakar, Chief Financial Officer; Mr. Lokanath Panda, COO, Digital Business; and Mr. Gaurav Chugh, Head of Investor Relations. I will now hand over the call to Mr. Gaurav Chugh, who will walk us through the initial comments. Thank you all, and over to you, sir.
Thank you, Moez. Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for taking time out to join this call today. This is to remind you that this discussion may contain forward-looking statements that may involve known or unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors. It may be viewed in conjunction with our businesses that could cause future results, performance, or achievements to differ significantly from what is expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. I would like to hand over the call to Mr. Shikhar Aggarwal for his opening remarks, post which Mr. Amit Sudhakar will discuss the financial performance of the company and will then open the floors for an interactive Q&A session. Thank you, and over to you, Shikhar.
Good evening, everyone. Thank you for joining us for the Q1 FY26 earnings call of BLS International Services Limited. This year holds special significance for us as we mark our 20th anniversary, a remarkable milestone that speaks of our journey of resilience, innovation, and a living commitment to excellence over the last two decades. Before we dive into our performance, I want to take a moment to sincerely thank our stakeholders, partners, and team members. Your trust and support have been central to shaping BLS into the globally trusted brand it is today. Our journey has been defined by sustainable growth, adaptability to changing markets, and a deep-rooted customer-centric approach. I am delighted to share that we have commenced FY26 on a strong note. This quarter's performance reflects the strength of our operating model and the impact of our strategic executions.
We have yet again achieved the highest ever quarterly financials. Our consolidated revenue reached INR 410 crores, marking an impressive year-on-year growth of 44% over last year's corresponding quarterly revenue of INR 493 crores. The growth was led by the existing business, as well as the consolidation of our client business, iDATA, Premium Ship Innovations, and REFEL Solutions during the previous financial year. Our EBITDA grew by 53% to INR 204 crores, from INR 133 crores in Q1 FY25. EBITDA margin also expanded by 171 basis points to 28.7%. Our CAC stood at INR 181 crores, witnessing a growth of 50% over Q1 FY25. Our Visa and Consular Services business continues to drive our company's long-term growth ambitions. This quarter saw strong traction aided by sales in global travel and increased integration of digital and tech-led solutions.
The segment delivered a revenue growth of 11% year-on-year to INR 461 crores, and net revenue growth of 60% year-on-year to INR 60 crores. The growth was primarily driven by a change in our business model from partner then to self-finance across many locations, as well as due to consolidation of iDATA Services. We recorded an EBITDA margin of 40.4% in the segment as compared to 29.3% in Q1 FY25, supported by the company's strong focus on cost efficiencies. We are continuing to deliver robust growth in a number of applications, as we processed 11.4 million applications during the quarter, representing a year-on-year growth of 33.6%. The global visa outsourcing market continues to present a significant opportunity, projected to grow at 14% CAGR and expected to reach $8.2 billion by 2028, a trend we are well positioned to capitalize on.
Now, moving forward to the digital services business, revenue in the segment surged 218% year-on-year to INR 250 crores, with an EBITDA at INR 18 crores. Growth here was primarily driven by the consolidation of Aadifidelis , as well as growth in our BC business. During the quarter, our subsidiary also signed a definitive agreement to acquire CSP rollouts of SBI and HDFC Bank from Sub-K IMPACT Solutions. This strategic acquisition will mark a significant step in the company's commitment to expand financial inclusion and enhance last-mile banking delivery across India. Our BC and BF business continue to drive financial inclusion. We have onboarded over 10,000 retailers, entered into a strategic partnership with HDFC Bank, along with CSP rollout in Odisha, and furthermore.
Beyond banking, we have also expanded our digital footprint with a new production subsidiary for digitizing some registrar's offices, streamlining land record registrations, launching Aadhaar Enrollment Centers in Rajasthan, and partnering with Delhivery for coded services. We continue to benefit from successful integration of Visa and Consular Services and acquisitions with iDATA, CI , and Aadifidelis . These integrations expanded our service capabilities, improved operational efficiency, and extended our presence and market share in high-growth markets. As we look forward, BLS International Services Limited remains well positioned to build on this momentum. We are expanding through key government partnerships and diversifying our offerings into areas such as citizenship, residency, and entry services. With a strong leadership team, a healthy pipeline of opportunities, and increasing adoption of non-innovation technologies, we are confident in our ability to create sustainable long-term value. I now invite our Chief Financial Officer, Mr.
Amit Sudhakar, to walk you through the financial highlights.
Thank you, Shikhar, and a warm welcome to all the participants. I'm pleased to present the consolidated financial results for the first quarter of financial year 2026 ended 30th June 2025. We have started the year on a strong footing. Consolidated revenue for the quarter stood at INR 710 crores, reflecting a robust 44% year-on-year growth compared to INR 493 crores in Q1 FY25. This growth was driven by continuous strength in our core operations, as well as the post-quarter impact of our recent acquisitions of iDATA, Citizenship Invest, and Aadifidelis Solutions , which were consolidated during FY25. EBITDA for the quarter grew by 53% YoY to INR 204 crores, with the EBITDA margin expanding by 171 basis points to 28.7%. This margin improvement is a result of our operating leverage, continuous focus on cost optimization, the transition of self-managed centers, and higher fund transition realization.
Profit after tax grew by 50% YoY to INR 181 crores, reflecting improved performance across both our core business segments. Now, moving to Visa and Consular Services, the Visa and Consular segment continues to deliver strong results, with revenue increased by 11% YoY to INR 461 crores. The EBITDA margin in this segment improved significantly to 53.4%, up from 23.3% in Q1 FY25. The strong performance was primarily driven by enhanced cost efficiencies, a higher proportion of self-managed centers, and consolidation of iDATA high-margin operations. Application volumes grew by 34%, reaching 1,104,000, while net revenue per application grew by 19% YoY to INR 3,167 per application. The Digital segment recorded exceptional growth, with revenue increased by 218% YoY to INR 250 crores, largely due to integration of our Aadifidelis Solutions Private Limited from November 2024.
EBITDA in the digital business rose by 54% YoY to INR 18 crores, highlighting the growing momentum of our digital service portfolio and the operational progress made during the quarter. Balance sheet and outlook, our balance sheet remains quite strong. Despite investments of over INR 1,000 crores in various strategic acquisitions during the previous financial year, we continue to maintain a net cash position of INR 1,126 crores as of 30th June 2025, compared to INR 928 crores of net cash as of 31st March 2025. Our Q1 performance reflects the disciplined execution of our growth strategy, with a clear focus on scalability, margin expansion, and diversification across geographic and service lines. We remain confident in our trajectory and committed to deliver sustained value to all our stakeholders. With that, now I invite the moderator to open the floor for questions. Thank you.
Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on the touchtone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. We'll take our first question from the line of Arpit Shah from Stallion Asset. Please go ahead.
Hello.
Yes, Arpit, please go ahead.
Yeah, I just wanted to congratulate the management. This quarter is just nothing short of exceptional execution. 40% EBITDA margin in a weak quarter for the Visa business. It's just like we're in a field of playing in a league of your own. As I just highlighted, if you want EBITDA this year in Q1 FY2025, you almost, if you are in a full-year EBITDA FY2025, that is just phenomenal execution in terms of acquisition, in terms of increasing margins, in terms of moving towards your own channels of business.
Arpit, the management line is disconnected. Let me reconnect them. Please stay connected. Ladies and gentlemen, we have the management team back on the call. Sorry about this. Arpit, can you please repeat your question?
Sure, can I add it now?
Yes.
Yes. Yeah, I just wanted to congratulate the management for this quarter's performance. 40% EBITDA margins in a quarter where it could face a lot of macro executions. We've almost done this quarter's EBITDA. We've almost done FY2023's full-year EBITDA. Just glad to see such kind of execution, such kind of progress in terms of execution that the management has shown us. Sorry, I had a question regarding the VFS IPO, which is probably on guard, 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's probably the values which are running around these states. It's about a multi-billion dollar, something about $8 billion to $10 billion kind of an IPO. How do we stack up against like a VFS?
I just wanted to understand, like we have seen phenomenal growth in the last couple of years. Even this quarter, it was 11 lakh applications , more than 36%, whereas YOY in a post-macro environment. Now, how do we go ahead from here? Do we continue this kind of growth that is going ahead, or do we now step up beyond visa outsourcing? Do we now start into better things with better margins, higher margins? What is the roadmap? How do we become a INR 1,000 crore tax company, let's say, from current levels? How much time do you think we start seeing currently? Just congratulations on a phenomenal performance. Thank you so much.
Thank you. Thank you. Arpit, first of all, I think better margins, so we have already achieved, at least in the Visa business, around 40% EBITDA margins. On an overall gain, we're 28.7% consolidated in the business. I think our immediate and long-term objective is to maintain. We have reached from 35% in the last quarter, and last year we were at 30%, 29%. We have now reached 40%. 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 to 17% global market share.
Wherever our competition, I feel that we are the second largest company globally in this business. As you have seen now, if you compare the numbers five years back, our EBITDA 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. We feel that whatever numbers we have achieved, we can maintain. What our guidance or what we are telling people is that now with the increased base also, next three, four years, we have continued to grow 20% to 25%, in terms of profitability, revenue, etc. There are multiple opportunities, in terms of new tenders coming out in the Visa field itself. Only as we spoke, only 50% of the global market is outsourced.
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 in different stages. As in when, as you see, we have done 11.36 lakh applications, which is a 33% increase compared to a similar quarter last year. There is a big leeway for growth, going forward. Whatever we have achieved, we'll maintain, and we'll look forward to consolidating the market.
Got it. If I could just speak about the seasonality, typically, if I look at whatever I see in terms of EBITDA or the CAC numbers for quarter one, that is because we grow by, for the full year, it's typically 4.5 to 5 times on a quarter one EBITDA of that. Should we see a similar kind of seasonality going ahead even for this year, or do you think the seasonality will change because of the acquisition and where you have different kinds of apps, different kinds of countries now participating in that two-week seasonality? Do you think that the range that we used to see from quarter one to the rest of the full year, that number still maintains even this year?
It's the post-COVID, post-COVID, a lot of things have changed. Trend has changed. As you see, the global travel trend has changed. There are different timelines that we see. Typically, quarter one is, you know, as you know, a lot of outbound travel from India also happens during this time. There's more. I think quarter three, quarter four, probably, I don't remember exactly, it's a little lesser. As you have seen in the last few years, the numbers we have received, acquisition, etc. Globally, you know, we are operating in multiple geographies. There is some high season from their end. Quarter one definitely has been good for us this quarter.
Got it. 11 lakh applications . Congratulations on that. We've seen a new high on the number of applications. I thought we'll saturate around 1 million per quarter, but I think we just surpassed that by another 100,000 applications. Congratulations. Thank you so much.
Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you. We'll take our next questions from the line of Ravi Naredi from Naredi Investment. Please go ahead.
Thank you very much for giving me the opportunity. Sir, what is our plan to use INR 1,100 crore immediately, any acquisition on card, or any new contract you find with any country which you'd like to tell currently?
I don't see, as you know, that last year, let's say, we did upwards of INR 500 crore acquisitions. We deployed our money in that, and that is getting consolidated. Now, if you see this again, this is a CAGR growing company. We are INR 1,100 crore plus net CAGR acquisitions. Definitely, we're looking at different opportunities. Right now, it's consolidating our previous opportunity acquisitions. As and when something gets materialized, we'll definitely let you know.
Immediately, no such acquisition on CAC, right?
We have an M&A team that keeps on looking. As and when something gets finalized, we'll definitely tell you.
Okay. Sir, you tell you acquire 100% stake in Citizenship Invest, which offer leading players in Residency and Citizenship, and actually, what is the business model of that company?
I think we have already explained this multiple times in the past, in the last quarter's events also. 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, you know, passports for different countries around the world.
Okay. Okay. Do you see more growth in Digital Services business or Visa and Consular Services we see in next time, next some quarters?
I did not understand your question.
From where we got more growth in Digital Services or Visa and Consular Services?
At a console level, you know, a revenue basis, we did 200% plus growth on the Digital Services business. EBITDA I can see combined, we did 55% growth. Both the business we have seen increase growth.
Okay. Okay. Any more margin expansion?
Maybe I request you to.
Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay.
Thank you. We'll take our next question from the line of Vansh Solanki from RSPN Ventures. Please go ahead.
Hello, sir. Am I available?
Yes, please go ahead.
Okay. My questions are on a margin side. If we see the margins of the Visa and Consular Services segment and the Digital Services segment separately on a Q2 basis, then Visa services are around INR 500 million plus margin. I want to understand that in Q1, the management converted the more partnership model into self-owned model during Q1. Also, Digital Services, the EBITDA margin is declined. Even ASPL is still a lower margin subsidiary, but it has full impact on quarter four. Why is the margin declined in Q1?
You are correct. In the Visa business, we have converted a few more businesses where the partnership model was changed to self-managed business, which helps us in the 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. The average has come down because of that. Growth has increased, but the average has come down of the digital business.
Digital business is already, ASPL is already considered fully on quarter four, I guess.
Yes, yes, quarter four.
Margin is decreased in Q1?
Yes, because in the quarter four, they get the incentives. If you understand the business of Aadifidelis , they are into loan distribution. For the whole year, their performance on the basis of that, they get incentives. The margins were higher during Q4.
Okay. I just want to understand how many % of stores in the connection points are in a partnership model as of now and a self-owned model. Can you just give a bifurcation of both?
Mostly all have now been converted into our own self-managed businesses. The last major one was China, which was done in Q1.
If I understand correctly, then EBITDA margin will be the same till Q1. Yeah, it will not rise more.
Yes, that is what our expectation was.
Okay. Just the one last bookkeeping question. Can you just give me the revenue contribution for the ASPL, iDATA, and Citizenship business for Q1 and also EBITDA margin if possible?
Approximately, Aadifideli s is about INR 150 crore, iDATA is about INR 72 crore or so, and Citizenship was about INR 11 crore in this.
Okay. EBITDA margin ASPL, you told the 4% upwards, and about others?
Yes, that's right. That's right.
Others for Citizenship and iDATA?
They are more or less as per our Visa business, around 30%, 40%.
Okay. Okay. Thank you, sir, and congratulations for the future.
All the best.
Thank you. We'll take the next question from the line of Amit Chandra from HDFC Securities. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thanks for the opportunity. My first question is on the strong YOY growth that we have seen. If you can break down that into what would be organic and what would be inorganic in that. For the 4% YOY, if you can break that down into organic and inorganic growth. Also, if we see margin expansion, the margin expansion that we have seen is also a function of, now we are acquiring the higher margin iDATA business. The EBITDA margin also, if you can break down. Also, if you can explain the fundamental reason behind what led to the margin expansion, specifically by shifting into the, you know, self-owned model versus the partnership model. What are the advantages of self-owned versus partnership?
In terms of the self-owned model, what kind of assets that we own, how many offices we have across, which are owned and which are interested, if you can give some clarification on that.
Amit, if you see from YOY business quarter to quarter, Q1 versus Q1, the growth already from new acquisitions has been in revenue about 35%, which has contributed, and that has also contributed to about 30% in the EBITDA margins, PBT, if you look at that. 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 partners has now been coming in our own books. For that, we have either taken over the existing establishment of the partner, or we have opened our own offices in those countries. Nothing has been on a fixed. We have not purchased any assets as a property. Purchased all the furniture and the office interiors and everything. Those have been acquired.
Okay. How many offices now, either you must have acquired or taken over in that process? If you can just 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. There are very complicated jobs here. Just for clarification, if you can, understand that.
Earlier, when we saw the partnership model, the revenue or the direct cost of the logistics as well as maintaining the offices and other was paid to the partner, which was going in our direct cost, cost of services. Whereas now, that has come out and the maintenance of the rentals of the place and the employee cost is getting directly debiting to our respective heads of expense now. If you see over the last year or so, the cost of services are coming down as a % of the revenue. You saw the cost has gone up in the employee cost and the other expenses. That is the administrative.
Okay, we're saying most of the office running cost is now more like an office model, right?
Yes, exactly.
Okay, how many offices do we have in rental or own model, if you can explain on those countries?
Practically 99% of all our offices are basically on rentals on a rental basis only.
Okay. Also, in terms of the contracts that we have, both the Indian and global, what would be the pipeline in terms of the renewal pipeline? What are the major contracts which are coming up for renewal? If you can have some data on that, like major ones.
Yeah. Amit, I think you explained in the past in the last one year, 90% of our contracts have been renewed. Next two, three years, some of those will come up, but we'll have clear visibility on the next four, five years, six, seven years of our revenue. Even we explained we won some contracts with U.S. government also last year that are for 10 years. We have clear visibility and a very strong position as a company as of now.
Okay. Sir, you mentioned that 50% of the total contracts are now outsourced. I think this number was very less three or four years back. This outsourcing trend has been on the rise. Globally, who are the other players who have got benefited from that apart from you? Or does it still remain a market which is dominated by a few players?
What is your question?
The trend has been, you know, 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. We are the major beneficiaries in that, or because the market has expanded. Some other players or the competition has also come up, or it continues to be only BLS and VFS as kind of the.
Yeah, for us only, honestly, it's been 15 years. It took us a long time to come here. New places, I welcome them to enter the industry. First of all, I think it's the qualification, as you know, the qualification criteria and all is pretty strict. We are dealing with monopolistic players, you know. 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. Also, market has expanded. The newer client governments have also outsourced. Newer services have been outsourced. Newer geographies have been outsourced. It is a mix, you know. Every year, the business is also growing 14%. As you know, year on year, there is a CAGR growth in terms of travel. A lot of factors have led to this growth where we are.
As I've explained to you, we are working on 10 different factors at any given point of time to achieve growth and profitability of the company.
In the Schengen Area, how many contracts do we have in terms of the global contracts, and how many are we getting as of now? If you can give some.
We are working currently with more than 40 client governments in more than 70 countries. There are multiple Schengen governments. I need to count how many exact number we have. We are working for Italy, Germany, Spain, Czech, Portugal, Poland, and Hungary. We are working for multiple, many more governments I can't pick out right now. We have, in the last few years, managed to penetrate a lot of the Schengen governments. You're talking to the U.S. government, Indian government, Philippine government, Brazil government. That is how you see we have achieved all this growth has come from all these factors. In the next few years, many, many countries are coming out with their tenders. New governments are coming out with contracts. We are bidding for it actively. We feel now we have a presence globally, a good team on the ground.
We feel that, you know, if we can maintain our execution, then definitely we can win more business.
Okay. Now.
Amit, I request you to join back the queue, please, as we have other participants waiting for their turn.
I have just one last question, if you can answer, and then I will be back.
Can you join back the queue, please? Thank you. We'll take our next question from the line of Gopalaa Krishnan from Uttamush Investments. Please go ahead.
Thanks for the opportunity. Congratulations to the entire BLS team for this stellar performance. Really, really happy. I just have one question regarding this profit growth versus sales growth. It has been a phenomenal run for your company. For example, trailing 12 months, your sales growth is 35% and profit growth is 58%. For three years also, it is 37% and 66%. Sales growth is around the 35 to 37% range, and the profit growth is in the range of 58 to 66%. My question is, now that you have done the partner to ownership model transitioning, have you reached the calculated points? Are there any plans to improve this profit margin? If so, what are those plans? That is one thing. The second thing is about this other income.
I saw in the annual report, other income comprises 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, Gopala Krishnan. For your first question on the growth, as we discussed, we have changed our business model, and practically, we have covered all the partners, or we have converted all the partners into our self-managed offices. We see now these margins will now get stabilized over the period. Growth will still be there because we are excessively looking at new contracts. We are looking at new M&A options for growth. We see that we should be able to maintain a decent growth over the next couple of years and somewhere maintain our profit margins on these levels. As for your second question about the other income, yes, because as you know, we have a heavy cash balance on our books, which is more than INR 1,100 crore as of today.
That all has been kept in debt or fixed deposits, and whatever we earn on that is being part of our other income.
Okay. I can add my question was regarding this profit growth. What you are saying is, you know, almost reached a saturation level. Beyond this, I mean, the same margins will be maintained going forward. Is my understanding correct?
I'm saying that the margins will get stabilized at this level, but growth will still be there.
Okay. Okay. Understood. Understood. When the UK FTA, any impact? I know last time you told it is a very small, minuscule portion of the business. Now that the FTA has been signed, I mean, are there any savings from that?
No, it doesn't impact us in any way.
Okay. Thank you. That's all. Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. We'll take our next question from the line of Dinesh Kulkarni from FinSight. Please go ahead.
Hello, sir. Am I audible?
Yes, we can hear you.
Thank you, sir. A really great set of numbers. Congratulations on that. Sir, two specific questions. One is if we see iDATA included become part of the BLS International in July last year. It was not part in the first quarter. If you could just tell me for the Visa business, if you do apples for apples comparison, how the organic growth looks like. I know that the consolidated number seems very high because we have acquired other businesses in Digital Services. If I just see for Visa, how does that compare?
If you look at only on the organic basis, our EBITDA has grown at 31%.
Okay, for all the revenue and more than the revenue.
Yeah, the revenue has been around the same level, but the margins have improved.
Are you seeing any additional growth in the acquired businesses over the last one year, or is it standalone business, you know, LEP? Where is the growth coming from?
We are anticipating going forward, the growth will come from, if you look at the Visa business, will come from one, from the tourism growth globally, which we anticipate should be in the range of 8% to 10% CAGR. The balance will come through the selling of our value-added services to the travelers. We look at that as the growth parameter for us.
Okay.
On the existing business.
On the existing business, it sounds great, sir. As I'm sure you're looking for more acquisitions with the cash reserves we have, definitely. Just trying to understand, sir, 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 how you are handling the manpower and the workload? Why should BLS International Services Limited get an opportunity even when, as you mentioned, other players are also getting into this? Why should we win versus others? Where is the niche there, if you could explain that.
Different players are getting into it. Some investor had on this call asked us this question. As I have said, there are only three people who are qualified for this bid. Obviously, you know, technology is something we are an Indian company. That is something that, you know, we are quite, we have an edge on globally, and the delivery that we are going globally. That is the reason.
Yeah, as a client, what is the first preference? Is it, I'm sure, an Indian tech company may not be the only preference they would have, right? You understand what my question is. It's in terms of why should you win versus others. Is it okay if anyone sets up another technology company and gives this kind of services? How fair chances will they also have?
We are in this industry for the last 15 to 20 years. Our experience, our delivery, our reference from client governments, our platform that we're doing, there are multiple factors, not one.
Okay. Sounds good. It seems you are really great, and I hope you can grow with us. Thank you very much.
Thank you so much, sir.
Thank you. We'll take our next question from the line of Vivek Gautam from GS Investments. Please go ahead.
Yeah, congratulations. You're on consistent good performance. My question is, is there 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 tourism, or not tourism, but the migration, to their countries for jobs and for student visas to become difficult? What impact is it having on our case? The second thing is about what would be the impact of our e-visas and visa on arrival services for our company, sir? The last question is about how do we stand with VFS and our differentiator? They are the bigger player and sort of a better image they have on the social media also. Thank you.
As you said, companies are getting stricter in their processing. On the other hand, they are talking about e-visas. There's a contradiction on both sides. The countries who are looking at strict visa rules are the ones where we work, and they are controlling. Today, we have a bottleneck more on the number of applications which embassies can process. Once they're bottlenecked, they de-bottle their processing, our volumes will, by default, continue going up from there. We don't see any, at the moment, concern on the volumes per se. As far as e-visa is concerned, there are some limited countries which are working on e-visas, and that is a different market altogether.
Yeah, do you believe that impacted because of that, sir?
Not really, because if you look at the developed nations and developing nations, they are still going 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, correct?
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.
Lastly, there is not much institutional interest in our company in spite of our we are coming out with great numbers. Would you like your IR or your company's IR heads to sort of participate more in the analyst conferences and invite more institutional investors with you? The numbers are consistently good, but unfortunately, except for LIC, not much of an interest of late, sir.
Frankly speaking, we have not been focusing on the investment side. About a year back, we had an IR person on board, and now he's going for all the investment calls and the others. Hopefully, they will also look at our company now.
I believe if you can participate in the analyst conferences and meet the research houses, it will be better for us. Because you are being a majority shareholder, you can think of that and ask your IR partner to be more proactive in that regard.
That's right. That's what we have started doing over the last, I would say, a year or so. Let's see. We are starting to attend those conferences.
We need to sort of pay attention to our social media presence also, and definitely in our line of business. That's how somehow negative things get propagated out of the way, but positive things are not that much. You have to focus on that.
Our Investor Relations person is there only, and I think he will take your input.
Yeah, thank you, Prashit, and good luck.
Thank you. Thank you, Vivek.
Thank you. We'll take our next question from the line of Sachin, an individual investor. Please go ahead.
Hi. Am I audible?
Yes, please go ahead.
Hi. Many congratulations. I'm a long-term shareholder in the company for over eight years, and it's the best performing in terms of revenues, profitability, as well as governance as well. Many congratulations for all the things that you guys have achieved. Just in terms of, is there any restriction for us to forward integration and get into the travel industry? Yeah, 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, no. We are actually focused on the government, like our business, which is into government outsourcing of services and exclusive contracts. This is what we are focused on, and this is what we are delivering.
There is no restriction from client governments. They don't.
We have not explored either sectors because our objective is to remain in the line of business where we are in.
Okay. Okay. Okay. In terms of China, we saw news that the Chinese, and so travel visas for Chinese folks traveling into India has restarted. Can you tell us how that trend is at the moment?
I cannot comment on the trend, but I can tell you that we are the authorized provider for the Indian industry in China. Definitely, any politics went in that will lead to increase in numbers for us.
Right. Okay. One last question is on the dividend policy. We're seeing the profits go up, but I'm 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. Is there like a percentage or something that is set aside for shares?
I think, first of all, we are equalizing. As you know, we've done INR 500 crore worth of acquisitions last year. Right. Also, from the day the company got listed, we have been paying dividends. Our policy is on the website as well, which is 30% of the profits up to that we are paying as dividends. We are continuing to pay dividends from the first day the company got listed. We are continuing to invest the money of the company in the growth of the company, which is acquisitions, technology, etc.
Right. Okay. No complaints just in terms of, you know, what it was. Thank you for that. I think others have already asked the questions. I commend your patience in repeating the same answers again and again. If participants just listen to the entire call, you don't have to ask the same questions again and again. I commend your patience on that. Congratulations once again.
Thank you so much. Thank you.
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Dilip, an individual investor. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Congratulations for a good number in this quarter, even the previous quarters and years also. I have just a couple of questions. One impact, you know, in the investor presentation, you have mentioned that outsourcing and your in-house, that half is 50-50, will become in 2029. Right. Now, is there a chance that the 50 will become in-house, will become, say, 30, 10, or maybe finally, they would not like to do it because the cost for the government is increasing a little more, much more than the. That is one question. The second question, I don't find whether you have a presence in France because that is the destination where all inbound traffic is very high for that country. I just want to query whether you also have a presence there and do those kinds of services.
Yeah, definitely. If you see from the last few years, outsourcing has increased. Before, it was usually outsourcing. Now, it has come up to a 50% level. You know, definitely going forward, outsourcing will be more. Regarding different countries, including the name that you mentioned, we are continuing to try to bid for contracts globally. As and when we win contracts with different governments, we'll let you know.
You have a share of about 10% as volume. Probably when your 50 gets reduced further, I can presume that your share will automatically increase?
Definitely, if the outsourcing market increases, we will also get better share in the outsourcing.
Can I presume that you are taking effort to increase from 10% to further 12%, 13%, 15%, whatever it is? I mean, whoever is your nearest competitor or whoever is globally?
Yes, we are making efforts to increase our market share, definitely.
Thank you.
Thank you.
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 consolidated basis, but you just mentioned in the call that Citizenship are a long-term visa, like standalone visas, short-term visas. Can you just give the bifurcation of both, that how is the standalone and how much is from the Citizenship?
99% of the applications are from tourist and business visas. The segregation of invest volume is very less, and revenue is very high. There's a very different category of applications. Out of the 11,000, 99% is of our core business, which is really short-term and long-term business.
Okay. Thank you. That's from my side.
Thank you. Thank you so much.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, due to time constraints, that was the last speaker shareholder 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 at BLS International Services Limited. 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.