BLS wins contract from Republic of Estonia

BLS International Services Limited (BLS), one of India's leading Visa and tech-enabled Government to Citizen (G2C) service provider, announces its most recent contract win from the Republic of Estonia.

As per the terms of the contract, BLS is contracted to provide services with regards to issuance of digital ID to e-residents granted by the Estonian Police and Border Guard Board (PBGB) at 5 (five) newly added locations. The locations mandated by the contract are Japan, Thailand, Singapore, Brazil and South African Republic.

An e-resident is an alien (non-resident of Estonia) to whom, as a benefit, the Republic of Estonia has created a digital identity based on the identity of the country of nationality of the person and issued a digital identity card: e-resident's digital ID. e-Resident's digital ID is a digital document that can only be used to identify a person and provide a digital signature in an electronic environment. e-Resident's digital-ID allows an alien to participate in pubic-law and private-law operations in Estonia regardless of her or his physical location.

While contract has a duration of 5 years, BLS would be charging an average service fee of Euro 18 (~INR 1,500) per application. BLS would also provide value-added services like providing assistance with application e-residency digital IDs, on which it would charge an average premium service fee of Euro 38 (~INR 3,200) per application. There are more than 50,000 eresidents of Estonia from across the world, with ~2,200 estimated to be from India itself.

Commenting on the developments, Mr. Shikhar Aggarwal, Joint MD - BLS, said "We are very pleased to have bagged a contract from Republic of Estonia. Despite being a relatively small country (population of ~1.3 million), Estonia is a pioneer in taking initiatives to virtually turn the nation into a digital country and providing a variety of citizen services using digital identities of its citizens. This win only goes to validate our ability to deliver cutting edge solutions that encourage efficiency and enhance productivity. This is a new field for us as a company and our entire objective of seeking this contract was to get our foot in the door and showcase our abilities in the national ID and resident card space. Eventually this could open up a whole new set of opportunities in the G2C space for the company.

We remain optimistic on digital revolution and how various governments, across the globe, are utilising it to shape their digital economy and improve citizen services. With an increasingly tech-savvy customer base, the need for real/near real-time fulfilment has risen significantly. We acknowledge this need and are continuously innovating and investing in solutions that help improve the customer experience. With most citizen services, globally, yet being semi-automated, we see a huge potential to tap into such opportunities and increase the revenue contribution from this vertical going forward.

For instance, consider our recent accreditation by the Canadian Criminal Real Time Identification Services, to run finger printing services for long duration visa applicants (work, study, spouse etc) into Canada. We are accredited to provide this service. This contract is one such initiative helping us meaningfully expand our G2C revenue stream in the coming years. With more than 500,000 such applications estimated to be processed every year. We aim to convert good numbers using strength of our existing offices in Canada. This assumes significance because of the fact that without any material incremental expenses needed to be incurred (since we already have 9 offices in Canada), the entire revenue from this contract could entire flow into PBT.

We remain well positioned to tap into the, fast growing, tech-enabled G2C space. We are aware of the changing landscape and consistently strive to learn from our experience, reinvent our capabilities and set benchmarks for the industry."

Shares of BLS International Services Ltd was last trading in BSE at Rs.86.1 as compared to the previous close of Rs. 82.6. The total number of shares traded during the day was 15135 in over 211 trades.

The stock hit an intraday high of Rs. 86.7 and intraday low of 81.5. The net turnover during the day was Rs. 1270863.

Source : Equity Bulls

Keywords