BLS International soars 10% on acquisition of Zero Mass in an all-cash deal

BLS international now becomes the largest business correspondent (BC) network in India. The stock has rallied 66 per cent in the last three months.

Shares of BLS International Services surged 10 per cent to Rs 195.40 on the BSE in Thursday’s trade in an otherwise weak market after the company acquired Zero Mass Private Ltd (ZMPL) for Rs 120 crore.

With this all-cash acquisition from company's internal accruals, BLS international has now become the largest business correspondent (BC) network in India. ZMPL is operating the largest BC network for State Bank of India (SBI) with around 11,500 active CSPs (around 15 per cent of all the SBI BCs). Apart from SBI, ZMPL has contracts with Utkal Grameen Bank and Karur Vysya Bank.

BLS International is a partner for governments and citizens, having an impeccable reputation for setting benchmarks in the domain of visa, passport, consular, citizen, egovernance, attestation, biometric, e-visa and retail services since 2005.

“BLS International has agreed to acquire 100 per cent equity shares of ZMPL for an equity consideration of Rs 120 crore, including entire equity stake of 63.94 per cent held by Mr. Anurag Gupta (main promoter). Pursuant to the transactions already completed, BLS International now owns 88.26 per cent equity stake in ZMPL. State Bank of India continues to hold 6.83 per cent equity stake in ZMPL,” BLS International said in its press release.

The proposed transaction is carried out through BLS E-Services Private Limited, 100 per cent subsidiary of BLS International. Through this acquisition, BLS International intends to expand and consolidate its BC Business, the company said.

At 10:02 am; BLS International traded 8 per cent higher at Rs 191, as compared to 0.21 per cent decline in the S&P BSE Sensex. The stock had hit a 52-week high of Rs 207 on May 23, 2022.

In the past three months, the stock price of BLS International soared 66 per cent, as against a marginal 0.26 per cent gain in the benchmark index. Further, in the last one year, the stock has zoomed nearly 200 per cent as against a 5.5 per cent rally in the Sensex.