VFS Global rejigs top deck, Yummi Talwar to replace South Asia COO Prabuddha Sen
In a top-level reshuffle, visa service provider agency VFS Global’s chief operating officer for South Asia Prabuddha Sen has been reassigned to a non-operational role and will hand over his post to colleague Yummi Talwar by June this year, two people close to the development told Mint.
Talwar has been the company’s regional head for the visa business for Europe. Talwar joined the company in 2006 and has worked in the company’s New Delhi, Kuala Lumpur, UAE and London offices. Sen was COO for Russia, Baltics & Eastern Europe, VFS Global until 2019 before he took over as the COO for South Asia.
The reason for the sudden change in the top leadership is not yet clear. Email queries sent to the company remained unanswered.
VFS is a major player in the visa and consular services industry, partnering with about 70 governments. They claim a network of 3,300 application centres in 144 countries. Since its founding in 2001, the company said it has processed about 266 million applications and focuses on administrative tasks related to visa, passport, and consular services.
Its clients are governments and citizens and it has headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland and Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Blackstone, alternative asset manager, holds a majority stake in VFS Global and a minority of the company’s ownership is shared by the Swiss-based Kuoni and Hugentobler Foundation and EQT, a global investment firm headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden.
Following the pandemic lull, Mint reported last year that VFS saw a significant turnaround in its business. Its most recent financial data for the 2021-22 fiscal year reflected a 31% increase in revenue compared to the previous year, reaching ₹446 crore, according to the company’s filings in the ministry of corporate affairs accessed via business intelligence platform Tofler. This positive trend extends to profitability, with VFS turning a profit of ₹17 crore in 2021-22, compared to a loss of ₹61 crore in 2020-21.
The visa service provider generates revenue in two ways: commissions on processed visas and additional value-added services they offer. South Asia is a key market for it, with as many as five million applications handled in 2022, with India contributing a significant portion (around 4.5 million).
While this reflected growth compared to 2020-21, it’s still below pre-pandemic levels; in 2019, they processed six million applications from the region.
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Published: 12 Mar 2024, 03:36 PM IST
Ganesh
http://ganesh@finplay.inFinance enthusiast, Mutual fund expert.