| Pine Labs, incorporated in
1998, is a technology company focused on digitizing commerce through digital
payments and issuing solutions for merchants, consumer brands and enterprises,
and financial institutions.
The offerings are categorized
into (i) digital infrastructure and transaction platform and (ii) issuing and
acquiring platform. The digital public infrastructure solutions range across
payments, data and insights through application programming interface (API)
enabled technology platform for financial institutions, enabling them to use
its technology to manage the life cycle of a consumer, including on-boarding,
underwriting, collections, and engagement. The company processed payments of Rs
11.43 lakh crore in gross transaction value (GTV) and 568 crore transactions
through platforms in FY2025.
The issuing and acquiring platform
enable consumer brands and enterprises to issue, process, and distribute
pre-paid solutions and consumer engagement solutions. Through cloud-based
software technology the company digitizes and makes commerce more secure for
its partner ecosystem, ultimately empowering them to serve consumers and enable
consumption.
The company has cumulatively
issued over 367 crore prepaid cards for consumer brands and enterprises.
Issuing and Acquiring Platform recorded GTV of Rs 51517 crore in FY25. There
are over 28 issuers using platform to issue credit, debit, prepaid cards and
forex cards with over 7.7 crore card accounts.
The company has completed
various key acquisitions and investments during last many years. Meanwhile,
organic growth has been driven by acquiring more merchants, partnering with
more consumer brands and enterprises and financial institutions, expanding merchant
solutions, scaling existing products, and processing a higher volume of
transactions.
The Offer and the Objects
The initial public offer (IPO)
consists of a fresh issue to raise Rs 2080 crore through issuance of 9.91 crore
equity shares at the lower band of Rs 210 per share (face value of Rs 1) and
9.41 crore equity shares at the upper band of Rs 221 per share.
The issue also comprises offer
for sale of 8.23 crore equity shares from investor selling shares to raise Rs
1729-1820 crore. The company is professionally managed company and there is no
identifiable promoter.
The issue is to be made
through the book-building process and will open on 07 November 2025 and will
close on 11 November 2025.
Equity shares worth Rs 2.5
crore are reserved for employees with discount of Rs 21 per share.
Out of the net proceeds from the
fresh issues of shares, the company proposes to use Rs 532 crore for repayment
/ prepayment, in full or in part, of certain borrowings, Rs 60 crore for
investment in certain of Subsidiaries, namely Qwikcilver Singapore, Pine
Payment Solutions, Malaysia and Pine Labs UAE for expanding presence outside
India, Rs 230 crore for investment in IT assets, expenditure towards cloud
infrastructure, Rs 430 crore for technology development initiatives and
procurement of DCPs and Rs 100 crore for expenditure towards technology
development initiatives. The company also proposes to utlise balance net IPO
proceeds post general corporate expenses and IPO related expenses for funding
inorganic growth through unidentified acquisitions.
Strengths
India’s payment landscape has
evolved from cash-heavy transactions to AI-driven digital ecosystems. Despite
multiple digital payment options, India remains underpenetrated, with high cash
usage, low in-store DCPs, and low credit card penetration, alongside a large
merchant base nascent in digitalization, offering growth potential for further
digitization. In India, total market opportunity in terms of total payment
value was approximately Rs 116.8 lakh crore in FY2025, having grown at a CAGR
of 36% from approximately Rs 25.2 trillion in FY2020. It is projected to grow
further to Rs 256-276 lakh crore by FY2029 at a CAGR of 22-24% with increasing
penetration of affordability solutions and cards usage as the digital payment
ecosystem across in-store and online matures.
There is no single competitor
in India offering a comprehensive and integrated suite of solutions as offered
by the company to its customers, across both digital infrastructure and
transaction platform and issuing and acquiring platform.
The full stack, cloud-based
flexible and scalable technology platform, with an API-first design, makes it
simple for ecosystem partners to adopt and build upon and a modular
architecture, allowing for agile deployment of new features and services, while
maintaining operational resilience.
The company has introduced a
wide suite of commerce solutions through innovations and opportunistic
inorganic acquisitions, driven by deep understanding of its ecosystem partner
needs and purpose-built technology stack.
The company has deep
partnerships with ecosystem partners in India and an emerging presence
internationally. Platforms have demonstrated portability internationally, with
operations having expanded beyond India to Malaysia, UAE, Singapore, Australia,
the US and Africa.
Pine Labs is the largest
player in issuances of closed and semi-closed loop gift cards by transaction
value in FY2025. It is also the largest digital affordability solution enabler
at digital checkout points (DCPs) in terms of total processed value, among the
top five in-store digital platforms, and a prominent Bharat Connect
transactions processing solutions provider in FY2025.
Weaknesses
The company has continued to
incur losses, except small profit in Q1FY26, driven by higher expenses, as the
company continues expanding operations, including scaling and broadening
partnership ecosystem, expanding and increasing the adoption of product suite,
investing in technology, entering new international markets and pursuing strategic
acquisitions. Revenues need to increase sufficiently to keep pace with
investments and other expenses efficiently to achieve profitability.
Success depends on ability to
retain and grow a diversified customer base. The revenue from operations is
concentrated among a few key customers and Top 10 customers accounted for
30.95% of revenue from operations for FY205.
The auditor’s reports on
financial statements for FY2025, 2024 and 2023 contain certain remarks and
modifications including adverse remarks and other observations on the financial
statements.
The company is subject to risk
relating to cybersecurity, data or privacy breaches that could interrupt
operations and adversely affect reputation, brand, consumer confidence and
business.
The company has not obtained
credit ratings. The cost and availability of capital depend in part on a
borrower’s short-term and long-term credit ratings.
The company is subject to
rapid and frequent changes in standards, technologies, products and service
solutions, as well as in customer demands, expectations and regulations. It needs
to continually enhance cloud-based technology to remain competitive and offer
innovative solutions and services to customers.
Reliance on third-party data,
technology and software introduces risks of regulatory non-compliance,
intellectual property infringements, misappropriations and malfunctions outside
control of the company.
Valuation
Consolidated revenue recorded
a three-year CAGR of 30.7% to Rs 2274.27 crore in FY2025, driven by 33.2% CAGR
growth in digital infrastructure and transaction platform segment to Rs 1603.23
crore (70.5% of total revenues), while the revenue from issuing and acquiring
platform increased at 25.3% CAGR to Rs 671.05 crore (29.5% of total revenues). The
overseas business contributed 15% of total revenues in FY2025. OPM improved
from (-) 10.0% in FY2022 to positive 0.3% in FY2023 and increased to 9.6% in
FY2025 and stood at 8.9% for TTM ended June 2025.
PBIDT was up by 814% to Rs 271.25
crore in FY2025. Interest cost increased 18% to Rs 78.96 crore. PBDT moved up to
Rs 192.29 crore in FY2025. With higher depreciation of Rs 292.09 crore, the PBT
was a loss of Rs 99.81 crore in FY2025, but showed sharp decline from PBT loss
of Rs 397.57 crore, a year ago. EO expense was at Rs 36.58 crore against nil,
the PBT after EO was a loss of Rs 136.39 crore. The net loss was Rs 145.49
crore for FY2025.
Sales were up 18% to Rs 615.91
crore in the quarter ended June 2025. OPM declined to 7.25% from 10.04%. OP fell
15% to Rs 44.64 crore. Net profit was positive at Rs 4.79 crore in Q1FY2026 against
a loss of Rs 27.89 crore in the corresponding previous period.
Sales were Rs 2367.77 crore
and net loss was Rs 112.81 crore in the TTM period ended June 2025.
Total outstanding borrowings
amounted to Rs 888.74 crore at end June 2025. As much as 60% of the debt will
be repaid from the issue proceeds, bringing down interest costs substantially.
If 60% of its interest cost is removed, keeping all other items including tax
provisions same, the net loss is reducing to Rs 63.38 crore for TTM ended June
2025 from reported net loss of Rs 112.81 crore.
At the higher price band of Rs
221, the company is demanding m-cap of Rs 25377 crore.
Post issue book value (BV) would
Rs 49.2. The scrip is being offered at price to BV multiple of 4.5 times at the
upper price band. EV/sales stood at 10.8 times sales for the TTM period ended
June 2025.
In comparison, Paytm is
trading P/BV multiple of 5.3 times and EV/Sales
multiple of 9.6 times of its sales for the TTM period ended June 2025. The
profit making, Zaggle Prepaid Ocean Services is trading at P/BV multiple of 3.8
times and EV/sales multiple of 3.1 times of its sales for the TTM period ended
June 2025
|
Pine
Labs: Issue highlights
|
|
For
Fresh Issue Offer size (in share crore)
|
|
- On
lower price band
|
9.91
|
|
- On
upper price band
|
9.41
|
|
Offer
size (in Rs crore)
|
2080.00
|
|
For
Offer for Sale Offer size (in Rs crore)
|
|
- On
lower price band
|
1729.32
|
|
- On
upper price band
|
1819.91
|
|
Offer
size (in no of shares crore)
|
8.23
|
|
Price
band (Rs)
|
210-210
|
|
Minimum
Bid Lot (in no. of shares)
|
67
|
|
Post
issue capital (Rs crore)
|
|
|
- On
lower price band
|
115.32
|
|
- On
upper price band
|
114.83
|
|
Post-issue
promoter & Group shareholding (%)
|
0.00
|
|
Issue
open date
|
07-11-2025
|
|
Issue
closed date
|
11-11-2025
|
|
Listing
|
BSE,
NSE
|
|
Rating
|
41/100
|
|
Pine
Labs: Consolidated Financials
|
|
|
2203 (12)
|
2303 (12)
|
2403 (12)
|
2503 (12)
|
2406 (3)
|
2506 (3)
|
|
Income
from Operations
|
1018.75
|
1597.66
|
1769.55
|
2274.27
|
522.42
|
615.91
|
|
OPM
(%)
|
-10.01
|
0.34
|
-1.41
|
9.60
|
10.04
|
7.26
|
|
OP
|
-101.94
|
5.36
|
-24.95
|
218.43
|
52.45
|
44.71
|
|
Other
Income
|
75.20
|
92.78
|
54.61
|
52.82
|
12.60
|
37.17
|
|
PBIDT
|
-26.74
|
98.14
|
29.66
|
271.25
|
65.05
|
81.87
|
|
Interest
|
23.78
|
35.73
|
64.46
|
78.96
|
17.80
|
21.42
|
|
PBDT
|
-50.52
|
62.41
|
-34.79
|
192.29
|
47.25
|
60.46
|
|
Depreciation
|
226.39
|
315.03
|
362.77
|
292.09
|
71.90
|
65.24
|
|
PBT
before EO
|
-276.92
|
-252.63
|
-397.57
|
-99.81
|
-24.65
|
-4.79
|
|
EO
|
0.00
|
-36.84
|
0.00
|
-36.58
|
0.00
|
0.00
|
|
PBT
after EO
|
-276.92
|
-289.46
|
-397.57
|
-136.39
|
-24.65
|
-4.79
|
|
Tax
Expenses
|
-56.90
|
-24.32
|
-55.66
|
9.10
|
3.24
|
-9.64
|
|
PAT
|
-220.01
|
-265.15
|
-341.90
|
-145.49
|
-27.89
|
4.85
|
|
Non-controlling
interest
|
0.00
|
0.00
|
0.00
|
0.00
|
0.00
|
0.00
|
|
Share
of Profit/(Loss) from Associates
|
0.00
|
0.00
|
0.00
|
0.00
|
0.00
|
-0.06
|
|
Net
profit attributable to owners
|
-220.01
|
-265.15
|
-341.90
|
-145.49
|
-27.89
|
4.79
|
|
EPS *
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
0.2
|
|
*EPS
annualised on post issue equity capital of Rs 114.83 crore of face value of
Rs 1 each
Figures in Rs crore
Source: Pine Labs Issue Prospectus
|
|