Rating Rationale
January 31, 2020 | Mumbai
Digispice Technologies Limited
'CRISIL BB/Stable/CRISIL A4+' assigned to bank debt
 
Rating Action
Total Bank Loan Facilities Rated Rs.45 Crore
Long Term Rating CRISIL BB/Stable (Assigned)
Short Term Rating CRISIL A4+ (Assigned)
1 crore = 10 million
Refer to annexure for Details of Instruments & Bank Facilities
Detailed Rationale

CRISIL has assigned its 'CRISIL BB/Stable/CRISIL A4+' ratings to the bank loan facilities of Digispice Technologies Limited (DTL; part of Spice Group).
 
The rating reflects the Spice Group's healthy financial risk profile with negligible long term debt and adequate liquidity as well as wide experience of the promoters in the digital technology services. These rating strengths are partially offset by the declining operating performance in Digital technology services segment and modest profitability in Spice money.

Analytical Approach

For arriving at the rating, CRISIL has considered the business and financial risk profiles of DTL along with all its subsidiaries/step down subsidiaries. This is because all these companies, together referred to herein as the Spice group are under a common management, and have strong cash flow fungibility amongst themselves.

Please refer Annexure - List of Entities Consolidated, which captures the list of entities considered and their analytical treatment of consolidation.

Key Rating Drivers & Detailed Description
Strengths
* Healthy Financial Risk Profile: The financial risk profile is marked by healthy debt protection metrics with interest cover of 11.7 times for fiscal 2019 and low gearing of 0.25 times as on March 31, 2019. The networth is low at Rs 231 crore due to losses incurred in the past. The group has no term debt outstanding and maintains high cash and bank balance. The group had cash and bank balance of Rs.72 crores on March 31, 2019. Company's capital expenditure and investment plans should remain moderate and therefore sustenance of a healthy financial risk profile will remain a key monitorable.

* Experience of promoters and professional management: The promoters have extensive experience in providing software/platform driven services like value added services, SMS services etc., largely in the telecom domain. Apart from India, the group operates in Bangladesh, Singapore, Africa, and South America. Company strengthened its management bandwidth by inducting a new chief executive officer to foray into solutions space as part of its strategy to expand its digital technology services.

Weaknesses
* Decline in operating performance of digital technology services segment: Digital technology services (which includes value added services) is the primary business contributing around 63% of the group revenue in fiscal 2019, post discontinuation of retail business. The revenue for the digital segment declined to Rs 91 crore in the half year ended September 2019 from Rs 120 crore in the corresponding period of previous fiscal. This is largely due to weak external environment with de-growth of the telecom industry as well as intense competition amongst players. The company has been taking corrective actions by adding consulting solutions as well as revamping its services offerings. Growth in revenue and operating profits from such steps will remain a key rating sensitivity factor.

* Modest profitability in Spice Money: The group has strong focus on the Spice money business which entails providing banking and transactional services to remote locations in India. The business segment has seen its revenue grow to Rs 118 crore in the half year ended September 2019 from Rs 50 crore in the corresponding period previous fiscal. Though Spice money has reported operating profits in the half year ended September 2019 however its contribution to the overall profits remains low (reported EBIT of Rs 1.2 crore in 1HFY20). Group's ability to further scale the business and improve operating profitability will remain a key monitorable.
Liquidity Adequate

Liquidity is adequate marked by cash and bank balance of Rs.72 crores as on March 31, 2019. The company has bank lines of Rs 32.75 crore which are on average 83% utilised for the 12 months ended July 2019. Group does not have any long term debt which further supports liquidity profile. Group's cash accruals are expected to range Rs 25-30 crore annually for fiscal 2020 and 2021 which should be sufficient to fund any capex or incremental working capital requirement.

Outlook: Stable

CRISIL believes the group's business risk profile will continue to be supported by management's experience and growing scale in Spice money. The financial risk profile should remain adequate over the medium term in the absence of any significant debt-funded capex.

Rating Sensitivity Factors
Upward Factor
*Significant increase in revenue with operating profitability sustaining above 7%
*Increased revenue diversity while maintaining a strong financial risk profile

Downward Factor
*Decline in revenue along with operating profitability sustaining below 3%
*Significant debt-funded capex or investment, impacting the capital structure.

About the Group

The Spice Mobility group was founded by Mr B K Modi and is presently managed by his son, Mr Dilip Modi. The group operates in the value-added services space through Digispice technologies Ltd and develops and provides applications for various uses. The group has tie ups with various telecom operators for this business, which is a steady source of income. It also operates in Bangladesh, Singapore, Africa, and South America. Furthermore, it has forayed into providing communication experience services via analytical and campaign management tools and solutions space providing consulting solutions to telecom sector, insurance sector and governments.
 
Lately, the group has also entered into the fintech space through Spice Money. Using its robust technology infrastructure, SDL provides various financial services including enabling people to remit money to bank accounts in a quick, convenient, and cost- effective manner, and value-added services such as air and railway tickets, hotel booking, mobile top-ups and bill payments from more than 1,00,000 touch points in India. The company has secured necessary permissions and licences such as PPI (Pre-paid Payment Instruments), AEPS (Aadhaar-Enabled Payment System), BBPS (Bharat Bill Payment System), E-KYC (electronic know your customer) integration, and UPI (United Payment Interface) to enable it to leverage upcoming fintech opportunities.
 
In the six months ended September 30, 2019, the Spice group (on a consolidated basis) had an operating income of Rs 209 crore and net profit of Rs 2.3 crore, against Rs 169 crore and Rs 2.8 crore, respectively, in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal.

Key Financial Indicators (Consolidated) 
Particulars Unit 2019 2018
Revenue Rs crore 377 282
Profit After Tax (PAT) Rs crore 9 -45
PAT Margin % 2.4 -16
Adjusted debt/ Adjusted Networth Times 0.25 0.16
Interest coverage Times 11.67 6.24

Any other information: Not applicable

Note on complexity levels of the rated instrument:
CRISIL complexity levels are assigned to various types of financial instruments. The CRISIL complexity levels are available on www.crisil.com/complexity-levels. Users are advised to refer to the CRISIL complexity levels for instruments that they consider for investment. Users may also call the Customer Service Helpdesk with queries on specific instruments.
Annexure - Details of Instrument(s)
ISIN Name of Instrument Date of Allotment Coupon
Rate (%)
Maturity Date Issue Size (Rs.Cr) Rating Assigned with Outlook
NA Cash Credit NA NA NA 10 CRISIL BB/Stable
NA Bill Discounting NA NA NA 15 CRISIL BB/Stable
NA Bank Guarantee NA NA NA 2.5 CRISIL A4+
NA Proposed Long Term Bank Loan Facility NA NA NA 17.5 CRISIL BB/Stable
 
Annexure - List of Entities Consolidated
Names of Entities Consolidated Extent of Consolidation Rationale for Consolidation
Spice Digital Limited Fully consolidated Strong financial and business linkages
Kimaan Exports Private Limited Fully consolidated Strong financial and business linkages
Luharia Technologies Private Limited Fully consolidated Strong financial and business linkages
Hindustan Retail Private Limited Fully consolidated Strong financial and business linkages
New Spice Sales and Solutions Limited Fully consolidated Strong financial and business linkages
Cellucom Retail India Private Limited Fully consolidated Strong financial and business linkages
S Mobility (HK) Limited Fully consolidated Strong financial and business linkages
Spice Digital Bangladesh Limited Fully consolidated Strong financial and business linkages
S Global Services Pte. Ltd (formerlyas S GIC Pte. Ltd.) Fully consolidated Strong financial and business linkages
Beoworld SDN. BHD Fully consolidated Strong financial and business linkages
Fast Track IT Solutions Ltd Fully consolidated Strong financial and business linkages
Spice Digital FZCO Fully consolidated Strong financial and business linkages
Spice VAS (Africa) Pte. Limited Fully consolidated Strong financial and business linkages
S Mobility Pte. Ltd. Fully consolidated Strong financial and business linkages
Omnia Pte. Ltd. Fully consolidated Strong financial and business linkages
Digispice Nigeria Limited Fully consolidated Strong financial and business linkages
Spice VAS Ghana Limited Fully consolidated Strong financial and business linkages
Spice VAS Zambia Limited Fully consolidated Strong financial and business linkages
Spice VAS Tanzania Limited Fully consolidated Strong financial and business linkages
Ziiki Media SA (Pty) Ltd Fully consolidated Strong financial and business linkages
SVA (Mauritius) Pvt. Limited Fully consolidated Strong financial and business linkages
Spice VAS Kenya Limited Fully consolidated Strong financial and business linkages
Spice VAS Uganda Limited Fully consolidated Strong financial and business linkages
Spice VAS RDC Fully consolidated Strong financial and business linkages
PT Spice Digital Indonesia Fully consolidated Strong financial and business linkages
Digispice Nepal Pvt. Limited Fully consolidated Strong financial and business linkages
Annexure - Rating History for last 3 Years
  Current 2020 (History) 2019  2018  2017  Start of 2017
Instrument Type Outstanding Amount Rating Date Rating Date Rating Date Rating Date Rating Rating
Fund-based Bank Facilities  LT/ST  42.50  CRISIL BB/Stable    --    --    --    --  -- 
Non Fund-based Bank Facilities  LT/ST  2.50  CRISIL A4+    --    --    --    --  -- 
All amounts are in Rs.Cr.
Annexure - Details of various bank facilities
Current facilities Previous facilities
Facility Amount (Rs.Crore) Rating Facility Amount (Rs.Crore) Rating
Proposed Long Term Bank Loan Facility 17.5 CRISIL BB/Stable -- 0 --
Cash Credit 10 CRISIL BB/Stable -- 0 --
Bank Guarantee 2.5 CRISIL A4+ -- 0 --
Bill Discounting 15 CRISIL BB/Stable -- 0 --
Total 45 -- Total 0 --
Links to related criteria
CRISILs Approach to Financial Ratios
Rating Criteria for Mobile Telephony Services
CRISILs Bank Loan Ratings
CRISILs Criteria for Consolidation

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