BLS International

I sincerely apologize if I am sounding negative. But here is caveat:

On a separate note, the service provided by VFS was amazing even when you go for US visa aor UK visa or Schengen visa.

It does matter for a service oriented company. Also, please note who owns the shares. it is the same family-Aggarwal. So how is this company any different from a kirana shop. Yes, there is a difference- the kirana shop does not have contacts or relationship with some minister or a pull in the government.

Please ask the management this question - How can they loose passports?
Also, please inquire with people who have travelled abroad or who have applied for OCI or PIO about this companyā€™s performance before investments.

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IS THIS THE MANAGEMENT:
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Now look at the line items below:

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@nkabra USA contract loss is a known story and is an old news. Besides help everybody understand more on siphoning of money or any specific governance issues that you know about itā€¦simply saying the company is corrupt and winning contracts because of unreasonable favor and not on technical capability is of no use. Itā€™s pretty simple to say the organisation is corrupt and following malafide practices.

Please clarify in interest of all else we should not allow such comments.

In the Spain VISA services, VFS was processing X no of Visas per month. And
within 6 months of taking the contract from them, BLS is processing 20%
more Visas per month than VFS. SAnd Visa seekers pay 30% less too compared
to VFS fees. So, who is efficient and who was inefficientā€¦Data has no
bias. But people can have a bias.

When a company which is charging 30% more and making humongous profits
loses large contracts, it will always try to malign the competitors in
social media. But, facts and data are realā€¦Such bad tricks wont workā€¦

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I agree with the viewpoint which someone has presented here.
I am sorry if I have hurt anyoneā€™s feelings. This is my personal opinion. Others are free to invest.

As an investor, I look at the fundamentals of the company - I am not sure about the fundamentals.

And I see only family being the management here. Look up the names in the AR. Management can turnaround a company in bad weather - I do not think that is the case here.
Also, the service provided leaves a lot desired. For all those who travel to USA, UK, UAE or Europe, may have felt the pain. Losing passports is a ridiculous thing the company has done multiple times.
I thin if regular abroad travelers post their experience here - It can be helpful to learn a bit more.

Can someone explain- How they get these contracts inspite of such service.

I wish others make money on their investment.

nkabra

If you were a neutral investor, why you brought VFS into the pictureā€¦How
do you know VFS did a great service for spainā€¦If indeed they did a great
service, how come they did not get the renewalā€¦That clearly sounded some
intent was there with you. You may be neutral, but the way you wrote the
previous messages, you should have avoided mentioning VFSā€¦On the family
members being in the managementā€¦many big wealth creators are owned and
managed by the families stillā€¦The key thing to note is - are they well
qualified and have the experience to run the businessā€¦I see it as a
positiveā€¦

Hi @rvetri,

With all due respect, I donā€™t think bringing VFS into the picture raises questions on @nkabra 's neutrality. It just means that he is comparing the service quality of BLS with its competitor VFS - this is only helping us understand as to which company is providing better services/products on the ground. While VFS has struggled historically with data security related issues leading to reputation loss, questions have indeed been raised on the poor service quality of BLS.

On the question, ā€œIf indeed they did a great service, how come they did not get the renewalā€, it is a known fact that BLS had hugely undercut VFS on pricing and not because there were question marks on the service quality provided by VFS (bidding of Euro 15.5 by BLS vs Euro 20+ by VFS per application if I remember correctly)

Albeit I do agree with you that management being a family shouldnā€™t be an issue.
@nkabra : Can you help us understand as to why would you think family management being an issue. Many small/mid/large caps have family as management and as @rvetri put it, they have been wealth creators as well. Also, Mr. Shikhar appears like a capable young professional (have seen his various interviews). Also, they have brought in an external reputed BIG 4 consulting firm for structuring at the group level (these are signs of an evolving management)

Disclosure: Invested from 180+ levels, sold after results. Looking for entry in future at the right price.

Hi Naz

The weightage of price of the service was only 10% in the Spain
contractā€¦So, BLS got the contract because of low price is not true. BLS
has proved themselves better in the other points which forms 90% of the
weightage - is the fact.

I guess you are quoting from the last conference call. While I am not disputing that, I got the sense from an article that the bidding process is round based. So initial qualifying rounds is to assess the technical capabilities, financial strength of vendors and later it is based on pricing. In spainā€™s case, I believe that initial rounds were qualified by all three (BLS, VFS and TLScontact) and finally BLS got the upper hand in terms of pricing - so practically it was probably pricing which played the key role since other parameters seem more like qualifying parameters (canā€™t locate the article right now but this can be a question to the management in the next conference call),

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On a positive note:
Indian company will provide citizen services in Afghanistan

This seems to be similar to Punjab citizenship services (and not standard Visa processing services)

Hi Nazā€¦
The price was considered first or last is a minor technical pointā€¦ The
fact is - the weightage for price is just 10%ā€¦

I beg to differ here slightly as I believe it depends on the bidding process. Letā€™s say there are two types of bidding processes:

  1. weighted average basis: If the final winner is being decided by considering the weighted average basis of all parameters (letā€™s say 10 parameters like pricing, technical capabilities, financial soundness etc) then pricing having a 10% weightage means that BLS was in fact better on an overall basis than all the other competitors.

  2. round based bidding process (knock-out types): if the bidding process is round based and the 2 other competitors also cleared 9 rounds along with BLS and lost to BLS international in the 10th round of pricing parameter, it means that BLS was better only in the 10th parameter (which is pricing). Although, technically pricing is only 10% of the consideration here as well.

This is where I need more clarity as to what exactly is going in favor of BLS.

Also, letā€™s agree to disagree here (as this can be clarified from management if we think it is important).

On another note, does someone have an idea as to why revenue went down in this quarter (Q-o-Q basis).

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Revenue down QoQ because of seasonality in visa business.

Hi Nazā€¦I guess i have to elaborate furtherā€¦ Assuming your case 2
assumption is correctā€¦It means BLS cleared all the quality parameters
which forms the 90%ā€¦While BLS definitely cleared the 90% ( otherwise they
would not have got the contract ), we donā€™t know whether others cleared the
90%ā€¦The Spain contracting Govt officials have only declared the winner and
they have never said anything that whether the others cleared the 90%. Now
if a company like BLS cleared 90% of the quality parameters, and offers a
30% cheaper price too - Isnā€™t it having a USP in its sleeveā€¦Considering
the fact that they make 15%+ operating margins which is getting better QoQā€¦

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I totally agree with you on all the points above - Just the fact that I recall having read that VFS & one other company also cleared technical/financial soundness/other rounds and lost on pricing (which I canā€™t locate now on web).

But broadly, I agree with you on the fact that BLS clearing all the technical/quality/financial parameters and offering it at 30%+ cheaper price is a great USP.
More than that, it will open up doors for France, Greece, UK visa contracts which are due in an yearā€™s time and will provide entry to other European Nations where traditionally BLS doesnā€™t have much presence, not to forget that these are 4-5 years of locked-in revenues with businesses having high barriers to entry.

BLS management mentioned in one of the conf calls. Probably Q4Fy17 or Q1FY18. The price difference between BLS and VFS were very minimal.

Regards,
Raj
Disc: Invested and holding

I recommend that you should not bother what any other investor is buying or selling. Instead, lets focus only on our process & due diligence. For example, I exited BLS international today after I got to know that the Punjab government has not paid anything yet to BLS for its work https://t.co/MasS0xUAkQ

ā€” Gautam Baid (@Gautam__Baid) November 14, 2017

Disc: Invested and holding

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Hi all,

Interesting points - I am trying to think that what we are trying to establish is two folds - whether the bidding process indicates superiority of BLS across all fronts ( not just pricing) and whether they are capable of executing or not.

Now, I am not sure w.r.t Spanish Visa allocation we would be able to figure that ever out, unless either the Spanish govt says that it did not follow the due procedure or lets say some media inquiry highlights it. I wonā€™t take managementā€™s word for it.

So two options are available - either we drop the investment idea completely or wait for BLS to execute. I am sure we would find various examples where companies exaggerate their capabilities to win contracts, but eventually its the execution that matters. If execution is above notch, they should get more visa contract going forward - we can wait for 2018 to see how it works and then take a call whether this business is worth to invest or not.

I would request folks to share any independent article / reports which can help us to establish quality of the execution and the management ethics. This will help to decide which of the above paths to take.

Thanks,
D

Disc: Invested, hence biased. But willing to change mind if new facts are presented.

Receivables have jumped sharply from 56 crs as on Marchā€™17 to 133 crs as on sepā€™17. We can assume that this is on part of Punjab project.

Moreover, we donā€™t know if these are confirmed and acknowledged receivables or not. Also company hasnā€™t confirmed anything on the aging of receivables.

@Mayank_Narula Please listen to the Q2 conf call at Researchbytes. All these questions are answered.

Regards,
Raj
Disc: Invested, no trading in last 3 months