BLS International Services shares rose 10.33% to Rs 195.4 on the announcement that the company will acquire Zero Mass (ZMPL) for a total cash consideration of Rs 120 crore.

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BLS International has become India’s largest business correspondent (BC) network with an all-cash acquisition from the company’s internal accruals. With around 11,500 active CSPs, ZMPL operates the biggest BC network for the State Bank of India (SBI) (around 15% of all the SBI BCs). ZMPL also has contracts with Utkal Grameen Bank and Karur Vysya Bank in addition to SBI.

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BLS International Services has made an agreement to buy 100% of ZMPL’s equity shares for an equity payment of Rs 120 crore, including the main promoter Anurag Gupta’s full equity holding of 63.94%.

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BLS International currently owns 88.26% of ZMPL as a result of the previously conducted transactions. The State Bank of India holds a 6.83% ownership holding in ZMPL. The proposed transaction is being carried out by BLS E-Services, a wholly-owned subsidiary of BLS International. BLS International plans to extend and consolidate its BC business with this purchase.

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Commenting on this, Shikhar Aggarwal, joint managing director of BLS International said, “We believe that through this acquisition, the collective experiences of teams will build synergies and further help BLS International to enhance its reach to deliver trusted banking services to the rural and semi-rural India. We have all seen that business correspondent networks are a critical last-mile link in the Indian banking system to bring greater financial inclusion. This acquisition shall result in a substantial increase in our touch points from 3,060 to 14,500+ CSPs, which BLS International would seek to leverage through multiple initiatives in future.”

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The company’s consolidated net profit increased by 50.36% to Rs 35.35 crore in Q4 FY22 over Q4 FY21, owing to a 75.59% growth in sales to Rs 253.84 crore.

BLS International was trading 7.65% up at Rs 190.65, while the S&P BSE Sensex was up 0.11%. On May 23, 2022, the stock reached a 52-week high of Rs 207.

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BLS International’s stock price has risen 66% in the last three months, compared to the benchmark index’s 0.26% growth. Furthermore, the stock has risen about 200% in the last year, compared to a 5.5% rise in the Sensex.

BLS International Services is an international technology-enabled services provider for governments and individuals in the visa, passport, consular, citizen, e-governance, attestation, biometric, e-visa, and retail domains.