Incorporated in 2007, Zero Mass Private Limited (ZMPL) has been operating as the largest Business Correspondent ("BC") network for State Bank of India ("SBI") with around 11,500 active Customer Service Points ("CSP") (about 15% of all the SBI BCs). The company has pan-India presence with CSPs located across all States and Union Territories of India. Apart from SBI, ZMPL has contracts with Utkal Grameen Bank and Karur Vysya Bank.
ZMPL accounts for 5%-6% of the bank accounts, deposit base and aggregate value of transaction of the BC system in India. It reported revenues of Rs 161 crore in 2021-22 and Rs 173 crore in 2020-21.
BLS International Services has agreed to acquire 100% equity shares of ZMPL for an equity consideration of Rs 120 crore, including entire equity stake of 63.94% held by Anurag Gupta (main promoter).
Pursuant to the transactions already completed, BLS International now owns 88.26% equity stake in ZMPL. State Bank of India continues to hold 6.83% equity stake in ZMPL.
The proposed transaction is carried out through BLS E-Services, 100% subsidiary of BLS International. Through this acquisition, BLS International intends to expand and consolidate its BC business.
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 network are a critical last mile link in the Indian banking system to bring greater financial inclusion. This acquisition shall result in 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."
BLS International Services is a global tech-enabled services partner for governments and citizens, in the domain of visa, passport, consular, citizen, e-governance, attestation, biometric, e-visa and retail services.
The company's consolidated net profit jumped 50.36% to Rs 35.35 crore on a 75.59% increase in sales to Rs 253.84 crore in Q4 FY22 over Q4 FY21.
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