WSFx Global Pay Limited (511147) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Ladies and gentlemen, good evening, and welcome to the investor conference call of WSFx Global Pay Limited to discuss the company's financial performance for the quarter and half year ended September 30, 2026. [Operator Instructions] Please note that this conference is being recorded. The information shared during this conference call is intended to provide a general overview of the company's business activities and financial performance as of the date of this call. Certain statements made during the call may be forward-looking in nature and are subject to risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied. The information provided should not be construed as investment advice, or a recommendation to buy, sell or hold securities of the company. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Srikrishna Narasimhan, CEO and Whole Time Director; and Ms. Pooja Mishra, Chief Financial Officer of WSFx Global Pay Limited. Thank you, and over to you, sir.

Yes. Thank you. Good evening to everyone. This is Srikrishna here, along with Pooja Mishra. And it's a pleasure to connect once again with our investors and present Global Pay's performance for the quarter and half year ended September 30, 2026. We will briefly take you through the company's operational performance, key business developments, financial highlights and digital initiatives during the period under review. The investor presentation has already been made available on the company's website as well as on the DST restate for your reference. Now we'll go over to the presentation. So this has been a record Q2 for us with a turnover of around INR 2,914 crores, 41.2% growth year-on-year. Revenue reached INR 44.58 crores, up 30% and PBT was INR 5.33 crores, up 9.6%. Our focus now is to convert the scale into a more consistent earning through deeper customer relationship and by the distribution. I will cover the performance of the priorities ahead. So I'll go like to a brief overview about Global Pay. Global Pay is a BSE-listed [indiscernible] authorized AG Category to ForEx and cross-border payments company. We sell education business, medical and travel needs through a combination of digital platforms, institutional partnerships in 26 branches across India. Our services cover outdoor remittances, student and education, corporate travel, ForEx, multicurrency cards and currency exchange student access through our lender partnerships at Education Consultant relationships, corporate use, our enterprise platform and service network, while travelers and individuals access our customer channels, including our branch network. Our model brings together 4 capabilities, digital access, brand support execution with our regulatory authorization and partner distribution we serve more than 900 corporates and work with over 600 B2B partners. We are ISO:27001 and PCI certified with support of our information security and card data controls. Strategically, this gives us a way to serve more of each customer's cross-border requirements and expand through partners. Our priority is to convert this reach into active relationships and repeated business. [indiscernible], so next slide, we go to the card portfolio, which is not part of this opportunity. Global Pay ForEx cards, we said we have a card for every journey. Our card portfolio covers corporate leisure, premium and student needs. The priority is distribution and usage, getting the client card with the right customer, then increasing loading reload and repeated engagement. We have heard the currency values in our card. Global Pay and Smart ForEx card first travel and multicurrency needs, Explorer card, which is a metal card addresses premium customers and our Unity card support student. So these are here [indiscernible] card for every type of customers. And how do we read it is that we talk on the next slide. We have a platform for every segment. That's our Global Pay platforms. Our agent corporate tempered partner, which we call SPAR and consumer platform provides the infrastructure for growth. The extent is greater option. In fact, as of today, our digital penetration is around 70%. We would plan to take it to 90%. The next it is greater adoption with existing relationships. [indiscernible] transaction workforce. We have done a lot of integrations, which support the expansion, and we keep our service and controls consistent. We want a large proposition of partners and customer activities to flow to the risk platforms, making transaction easiest initial track and service. Now we go to the next slide, when we talk about Q2 performance. 3 outcomes defined Q2. Turnover, 3Q grew by 41.2% and revenue grew by 30%. The second takeaway has been profitability. PBT increased 9.6% to INR 5.33 crores as the revenue grew faster than overhead. We also advanced the capabilities needed for further growth. In fact, we got a perpetual license that we were able to activate our lost account and signed partnership with Mastercard [indiscernible]. Card distribution also went live for us. Go to the next slide. This is a very important slide because this is -- the new mandate gives us a lot more scope. So on July 30, we got our expanded mandate. Now our license is perpetual. This expanded scope creates opportunities in permitable, nontrade and trade transactions. In fact, we can do all non-trade transactions except gift and donations. Trade transactions, we can transact up to INR 2,500,000 per transaction. The foreign correspondent framework, we can appoint ForEx correspondence. This can ensure we can, using this network, we can enhance our distribution reach without the branch network. So our priority in all these things is disciplined implementation with the required systems and controls in place. We go to the next slide, which gives you the quarter 2 scorecard. Q2 turnover grew 41.2% year-on-year. We did INR 2,914 crores and 95.5% on a quarter 1. Revenue was at INR 24.58 crores grew 30% year-on-year and 91.9% over Q1. PBT rose 9.6% year-on-year, it was 9.1x Q1. Our base company is 944 active contracts and 61 active agents with 2 branches added. In fact, we had a [indiscernible] branch. The commercial priority is to generate more business from these relationships along some new customer acquisition. We go to the next slide. This talks on the half yearly performance. First half turnover reached INR 4,405 crores. Revenue was at INR 57.81 crores. PBT at INR 5.91 crores. Q2 delivered 2/3 of the turnover because Q2 is high season for us and 90% of the PBT. So this demonstrate the strength of the quarter because always, if you see subsequently in to show you translate always look Q2 is the strongest quarter, and we have 10 brilliant. But our priority remains adding more activity projects. Throughout the year, we are able to generate more business. We go to the next slide. This is very important because all this has happened in a very, very challenging market. We grew despite ForEx volatility. Visa uncertainty. In fact, the U.S. market is down. In fact, there has been a major [indiscernible] market for U.S. [indiscernible] dilation at rate because of the account in Middle East. So essentially, it has not been a great market. But our student leadership, our focus on our key segments of students and corporate has ensured that we are able to grow in this very challenging market. And we are happy to say that in this quarter, we were able to have 2 months time. We cross INR 1,000 crores turnover in a month. So one other thing which I would like to add is our digital channels also support our access and distribution. In fact, our digital and automation has grown, we are trying to have some sort of integration with our partners. Our cumulative registrations have gone up. So overall, you can say that we were able to grow in a very challenging market, where overall market has dipped thanks to our ability to increase our balance share, increase our penetration and also to our digital. So to the next slide, this gives you a quarter and half year comparison. If you look at the comparison, it was how growth has translated into earnings. Q2 PBT increased from INR 0.58 crores in Q1 to INR 5.33 crores while first half PBT was 17.6% year-on-year. We need to preserve the earning discipline as activity expense. Now we go to the next slide. This gives you the last 10 months comparison, it also gives you a fair idea on the seasonality in our business. Obviously, Q2 is always the strongest quarter. Q1 is the weakest quarter and subsequently in Q2, Q4 tapers down a bit, but are essentially better quarters. If you'll go to the next slide. This gives you a kind of a trend. This gives you an overall trend of the company's turnover over the last -- from FY '21. In fact, we have [indiscernible] quarter-on-quarter over the last 6.5 years. It gives you a fact again, that we have an upward trajectory. From COVID, post COVID, we are slowly grown. And now if you really look at it, in half year itself, we have achieved INR [ 4,405 crores ] as against the last 4 years, turnover of INR 6,382 crores. Now we come across remittance and ForEx cars, which are very key products for us. Outward remittance remains the main growth driver for us with Q2 turnover increasing 53.9% year-on-year. Remittance, turnover was approximately 2.3x Q1. Student [indiscernible] as the university fee payment is central to this performance. So we grew remittances with a CAGR of 42.70%. Obviously, when you look at cars, we have grown at 62.08%. Today, I would like to say our card is nothing but a Global Pay card. Earlier, we had distribution arrangements with various banks, but we are unsettle programs. And today, it's our own program. And in fact, where we have started getting into a growth curve there also. We have launched a card distribution program where we have onboarded 22 quarters to our regular entities. We'll go to the next slide. So this again as of the customer segment mix. Obviously, you can say we are a specialist in students. All 3 segments, we have shown growth, while, of course, retail was affected in the first 6 months. But still, we have seen a 90.1% year-on-year growth. Corporate, we saw 12.3% year-on-year growth. Student, we saw 44.2% year-on-year growth. So student is still the biggest segment for us. Now to go to the next slide. We talked about the overall students business where we have grown 44.2%, but as I already explained, we have large NBFC partnerships, and we have been able to onboard around 90 student partners in the first half year. So increased extra and penetration has ensured that have got into a leadership portion in this segment. Lets come to the corporate business. Corporate turnover grew 12.3% year-on-year on Q2. The CAGR of 83.01% when we take FY '21 as the base. So one thing I would like to say, corporate has still not reached pre-COVID levels. But it is decent. It is maybe at a 40%, 50% level as of now. But we are being able to increase our market share. So now our priority is to add more corporate increase our value share and ensures that we are able to reasonably build our volumes in the corporate segment because it remains as a key priority for us and we have also a platform, which builds stickiness and also convenience for the corporate customers. We go to retail. Our forte, the last 1, 1.5 years, we have been trying to build on a retail business, which we call our direct-to-customer business. In fact, our branch networks are there, which are actively given this business, our CDP partnership also ensures that we get more of a leisure business. So you can say that we are growing. But obviously, we are growing in every responsible balance. We are not going, as I always say that we don't go all out on D2C because we feel that business has to be done prudently and keeping a margin. But we are happy to say a partnership -- our partnership with aggregators and also our brand network, we are able to show growth in this segment also. We have grown in the CAGR of [ 20.51% ] in the segment. So next slide, we talk of the revenue and the cost that we had done a comparison. Revenue grew 91.9% sequentially against the expense growth of 29.4%. So essentially, we can say our revenue growth is higher than the cost, which has ensured profitability. If we go to the next slide. Next slide is our financial results. Q2 PBT is at INR 5.33 crores and PAT at INR 4.26 crores. First half year, PBT at INR 5.91 crores and PAT at INR 4.56 crores. The Q2 made a substantial contribution to the first half earnings. Now if we look at the strategic priorities for us in the next slide. We have 7 priorities, which ensures that there's a clear execution plan. So 1 is we will widen the authorization, which we have received, which is obviously the ForEx correspondent rollout. In fact, we have got our policies in place got policies in place, and we are expecting to roll this out by November, which will ensure that beyond our strategic branch network, we are able to expand far and by with our partner network. And also, we are getting our membership [indiscernible] and we will shortly activate trade remittances, which we expect to go line maybe by December and January. So that is one thing which is important. And second part is our leadership in the students payment. So we have got multiple collaborations, multiple partnerships, and we want to continue to dominate this segment. When it comes to the corporate, we want to increase our wallet share. One most important thing from an expansion perspective is our partner-led distribution. That is what we are stressing much on our network. In fact, we have expanded 2 branches. We may have a couple of branches rolled out in the next 3 to 6 months. We are also looking at expanding the car distribution partnership where we will sign up with the regulated entities to distribute our ForEx cards. First one, which is very important, this ensure stickiness this digital platform adoption, and we are happy to see that we are growing. Obviously, 1 area that we want to accelerate now start legal travel is a growing segment, and we want to have a broader business there. Most important priority is everything which we do will be compliance by design. So this is where we feel is our near-term priorities in the next 3 to 6 months, which is ensure we can create value. Now we talk of the 4 alerts, which support the global way platform, which is governance, digital infrastructure, customer relationship and compliance. We already have an operating base from which to expand. Our focus is now on execution, more active relationships, greater usage and disciplined management of costs and controls. This foundation, these foundations give us the capacity to pursue the opportunity. Consistent service and controls are essential new partners and transaction types are introduced. So what is important is whatever we do, we bring digital [indiscernible], we have customer focus and everything we do as good governance and compliance. And that's why we only stress on trust, transparency and compliance as the core values of the company. So with this, I come to the end of my presentation, and I'd be happy to take questions over to the moderator. Thank you so much.

[Operator Instructions] First question is from the line of Ankit, an Individual Investor.

Sir, my first question is regarding the suites that we have -- that is the [indiscernible]. It's all up from 52% to 58% in this quarter. Is it ...

No, we are not able to hear you clearly.

Just give me a second here right now?

Yes, I think can again. Now, it looks better.

Can you please use your handset, sir.

Am I audible right now?

Yes.

Question is like commissions have increased from 52% to 58% right now. So can I consider this as a new norm right now because we are expanding partners and all?

Yes. Actually, when you want to increase your wallet share, obviously, you'll have a higher payout. So obviously, that strategy to [indiscernible].

So 58%, around 50%, 60% would be the new norm for commissions, right?

It depends on the partner. Everyone doesn't get a flat one according to the business potential.

Secondly, on the -- in the AGM, you talked about the clarification from Ariba regarding the scope for at business. Have you got -- was it any clarity from earlier in that year?

[indiscernible] of answer to are getting the membership once we get the membership, then will be drawn and the arrangements operationalized. So that will happen in November.

So we don't need to apply for [indiscernible] license?

That's what we are thinking because as of today, we want to first go ahead with 2 authorization. And if we want to figure out if there is something more to be added, then we'll look at the PACD because now we have got the expanded mandate.

And have you drawn out any plan regarding the cross-selling because the first target would be a corporate set up already our clients. So do you have any plans regarding cross-selling or take payments to that?

As of today, we are operationalizing the distribution in FSC distribution. Obviously, we have a brand [indiscernible]. And we will be using the infrastructure and now we'll have a partnership network also where we can acquired business. So question is that we need to get the -- we have to have a full understanding on the kind of arrangement, which we can work on. So as I said, anything related to trade will get operationalized in Q4. Q3 is where we are trying to operationalize the ForEx correspondent network.

Okay. And apparently are we looking at from a promoter entity, like you mentioned last thing we are looking outside it as well.

I didn't understand.

[indiscernible] definitely that we are looking to tie up [indiscernible]. Last time, you mentioned that you probably look for the promoter entity group, which already has a large FSP network. And you would like -- and is it that you're looking forward or we are looking forward to a different type of setup?

So essentially, we are looking at network, anyone who has a similar business or complementary business can become an FXC if he wants to deal in foreign exchange. So as a regulated entity, they become our card distribution partner. If they are not regulated and want to get it to the ForEx correspondent business and try to offer foreign exchange. It can be an NBFC. It can be a travel agent, it can be education consultive. Essentially, it should be an entity. It cannot be an individual. And we have multiple models of FX partnerships, which we will activate.

And lastly, in the student segment, we had done a commended growth. Is the segment is still growing? Or are we alone entity there?

Segment is not growing. In fact, U.S. is up. Of course, U.K. has grown. U.K. and Australia has grown. But overall, segment has not grown, but we have been able to increase our market share because of our partnerships.

Okay. And is it only a remittance or are we -- we had a student card and payments also. Is there anything...

Every student-related businesses, both remittance and card has grown. But obviously, it does not -- the card business is always higher when U.S. tail happen. In other locations, it's slightly lesser. So if U.S. driven returns back to normal, we will have still higher growth in cards. But I mean overall are growing again after you know dip.

Got it. And lastly, are we looking at tie-up [indiscernible] or [indiscernible] uncertainty phones for our related business or cards business because they were large network?

Which [indiscernible]?

[indiscernible] Visa consulting companies like [indiscernible] and all for our growing our business as our large client base.

Absolutely. So we are always on the lookout. In fact, we are looking at travel aggregators, visa consultants. If it is commercially viable, we get into partnership, we don't do it ready from a marketing promotion perspective. So everything is looked out from a viability because every business segment has its ticket size and commercial viability because foreign exchange being episodic. We have to always look at not just the -- whether it is economic partnership with economic. So obviously, in a partner outreach, we try to work with every partner and see if it's commercially able to have a partnership rolling.

Next question is from the line of Mukul Srikant from Emkay Capital.

Just one question on the retail channel. What are our strategy and initiatives to grow that channel going forward?

Yes. So from a retail perspective, it's again partner-driven majorly because today, what we are looking at is the cost of acquisition on DTC is very high. So what we are focused on is brand-driven acquisition, where we have a customer base, we have a large corporate base. We have a large student base, which itself becomes a source for cross-selling and increasing our leisure segment. In parallel, we are trying to tie up with travel aggregators, where we can provide the foreign exchange for the customers. Travel agent outreach is also one of the activity which we do. we have gone slow on D2C direct, where we -- while we do a decent amount of marketing spend on advertising, brand building organic growth, our predominant model as of now is partner-driven, where we try up with driver aggregators, where we try to cross we have building a strong marketing automation where we have around 100,000 customers in a year. We are trying to cross-sell our remittance or our card services to them for their various needs. This has been our strategy. D2C, we are slowly building it so that we can organically grow in trying to aggressively burn cash on performance market.

Got it, sir. Any reason why retail has been soft apart from the U.S. visa issues travel overall has been descent.

Essentially, if you really look at it, April, there was a huge dip because even our Prime Minister had told people not to travel much. So April was a big dip. And the overall Middle East situation has been bad. So what has happened is it has had an impact on everyone for that matter. We had less impact because our exposure to retail business, whereas I have more a student at a corporate-driven company. That is why my results are not affected. If you literally look at pure-play travel companies, the result would not be that great because travel has been affected in Q1 majorly. Q2 also, it was affected more towards if you see Middle East is still in turmoil. So overall, travel is down. Student also had its impact, but luckily for us, U.S. dip, but U.K. did grow substantially for us. So essentially, what has happened is travel -- leisure travel has gone down. But we hope that because since that is a rapidly growing market, we are expecting it to be a short-term blip because Indians do travel a lot. Our focus is to do global Paycard to them. But what has happened is leisure is more driven today towards credit cards. And the ticket size is very small from a ForEx perspective. And that is where we look at partner-driven model than a direct model to start with because the tendency for a leisure customer to take a credit card or a currency is more than a ForEx card. And with our efficacy network, once we have an FX network in [indiscernible] corner of India, we definitely feel our ability to connect with the -- in the last mile with the customer will be much higher.

One last question. Any guidance on where we land in [indiscernible] driven first half is in the back?

Pardon?

Any guidance for full year '27?

No. You can repeat the question.

I'm just asking if any guidance for full year fiscal '27 given first half is already in the bank?

See, first half is positive. Now as I said, we cannot speculate, but we are always positive about second half because we are activating newer solutions and all. So we are always optimistic that things will always improve. So when we started April, we thought this year is going to be bad, but we closed with record numbers. So we carry the [indiscernible] duty forward. What I'm very positive about is that we want to activate both trade and FXC, which definitely will add over and also card distribution partnership. We, separately, we are sure will add value.

Next question is from the line of Lalaram, an individual investor.

I'm an [indiscernible] I have two questions from the [indiscernible]. So how should we look at your P&L, for example, the commission expenses. If I look at in terms of percentage of revenue, which has gone up of the gross turnover is that same. So how should we interpret the business model?

Actually, the sound is not very clear. Can you be little louder?

Is it better now?

Yes, yes.

Sir, I want to understand how should -- as a shareholder, I should read your P&L. For example, in this quarter, while you are saying that revenue. Your expense growth is lower than revenue growth, but at the number level, EBITDA margin actually has gone down from 15%, 16% to 12% versus the previous year. So can you just help me understand how to rear and margins?

Yes. So basically, if you read the P&L, there is a significant -- actually, what has happened is a significant part of the incremental business has come from B2B channels. And so the commission amount has increased. So if you compare the commission percentage, commission percentage has gone up. The overall cost has not gone up in a similar proportion. So for H1 in totality, you see the net revenue if the revenue has grown by 30%, the PBT has also grown by 18%.

Correct.

Yes. Yes. It is because in this [indiscernible] there was a lot of B2B business.

Okay. So just 1 more follow-up question on this. If I look at your commission expense as a percentage of your gross turnover, it is actually same versus the previous quarter of last year at around 88 basis points, 89 basis points. So can you yes -- so can you help me explain that? Does it mean that the basic -- so the fall in EBITDA looks more like a reason not because of commission, but because of lower take rate in whatever business that has led to the growth in this quarter, your take rate is lower in that business. Is that correct?

No. Actually, in the previous year same quarter, there was a onetime result. There was a one time Visa incentive, which was there because we launched our card program. So it is -- that is why the comparison is showing that way. But otherwise, there is no -- because that amount itself was quite substantial.