BLS International hits new high after Nomura increases stake

New Delhi: Shares of BLS International Services rose more than 15 per cent, hitting a new peak, during the early trade on Tuesday after Nomura Singapore raised its stake in the company.

Global financial services firm Nomura Singapore hiked the stake in the visa-related services provider and bought additional 11 lakh equity shares of the company on Monday.

This purchase has been done at an average price of Rs 230 apiece, valuing the transaction at Rs 253 crore, the bulk deal data from National Stock Exchange showed.

Following the update, shares of BLS International Services zoomed more than 15 per cent to Rs 263, its new lifetime high. The stock had settled at Rs 227.95 on Monday.

Earlier in July, Nomura had picked 12.5 lakh shares of the company at Rs 214 per share. The value of this purchase was about Rs 267.5 crore.

So far in the calendar year, the stock has rallied more than 175 per cent. From the Covid-19 lows, the stock is up more than 1,750 per cent.

In the June 2022 quarter, the company had reported a 51 per cent rise in the net profit to Rs 30.7 crore, with a 53 per cent increase in the operational revenue to Rs 272.8 crore on a year-on-year comparison.

The company also acquired an 88.71 per cent stake in Zero Mass (ZMPL), making it the largest business correspondent (BC) for SBI across India.

Established in 2005, BLS International is a tech-enabled services provider for governments and citizens, in the domain of visa, passport, consular, citizen, e-governance, attestation, biometric, e-visa and retail services.

The company works with over 46 client governments including diplomatic missions, embassies and consulates, and leverages technology and processes that ensure data security.

It has an extensive network of more than 15,500 centres and is the only listed company in this domain with operations in 66 countries.