Pine Labs cites profit turnaround, reduced borrowing need for smaller IPO

Fintech firm Pine Labs has pared back the size of its upcoming IPO, citing stronger earnings and a smaller need for new capital.

The company, which turned profitable in recent quarters, now plans to raise up to Rs 2,080 crore via fresh issuance and offer up to 8.23 crore shares in a secondary sale, according to its red herring prospectus. That’s a sharp cut from the Rs 2,600 crore fresh issue and 14.78 crore shares originally proposed in its draft filing.

“We have reduced the primary from 2,600… that has largely come out of one component, which is a reduction in the debt repayment amount,” Chief Executive Amrish Rau said at the company’s pre-IPO press briefing.

“Our EBITDA performance has continued to increase… we just did not see the pressure for us to try and raise debt that I would be equitable and hence we decided to reduce the primary component also.”

Funds from the fresh issue will go toward repaying Rs 532 crore of debt and investing Rs 769 crore to expand technology and overseas units, including subsidiaries in Singapore, Malaysia, and the UAE.

Pine Labs Ltd. posted a profit of Rs 4.79 crore in the June quarter of FY26, reversing a year-earlier loss of Rs 27.89 crore. The gain was largely driven by a tax credit that offset an operational loss.

The company also reduced the offer-for-sale, with some investors choosing to keep more of their shares instead of selling them. The selling investors basically said that, ‘I totally respect what the company wants to do… I’m happy to reduce the OFS size because I’m ready to hold on for some more.’” Rau added.

The IPO represents a major exit opportunity for long-time investors, including Peak XV Partners (formerly Sequoia Capital India), Actis, Temasek’s MacRitchie Investments, PayPal, Mastercard, Madison India, Lone Cascade, and Sofina Ventures. Founder Lokvir Kapoor will also sell a portion of his stake.

The CEO said the pricing was designed to ensure broad-based investor participation rather than pushing for the highest possible valuation.

“When it came to the pricing of this IPO, we were very clear that we want to continue to garner goodwill and we wanted to get everybody’s support when we go out with this pricing for this IPO… We’ve priced ourselves in such a way where we believe that the village will come in and support us.” Rau said.

The company has fixed a price band of Rs 210–221 per share.  Pine Labs is seeking a post-issue valuation in the range of Rs 24,217 crore to Rs 25,377 crore.

The issue is being managed by Axis Capital, Morgan Stanley, Citi, JP Morgan, and Jefferies, with KFin Technologies serving as registrar.