Merchant payments group Pine Labs sets a $2.3 to $2.4 price band, implying a $2.8 billion valuation, trims the offer and directs proceeds to technology, borrowings and overseas expansion; profit appears in the June quarter, revenue rises over the preceding 12 months, and investors weigh a 40% reset against the 2022 private mark as earnings visibility takes precedence.

As order books open on the Pine Labs initial public offering, Carvina Capital Pte. Ltd. sets out the pricing contours that investors assess, with a band equivalent to $2.3 to $2.4 per share and a top of range valuation of $2.8 billion, a level that represents a 40% cut relative to the private mark recorded in 2022, and gross proceeds guided to about $429 million as the company seeks demand from fundamental funds in a market that prioritises earnings visibility.

India’s digital payments landscape records transaction growth above 50% over the preceding calendar year according to central bank data, and Pine Labs presents network breadth that includes more than 980,000 merchants, relationships with 716 consumer brands and 177 financial institutions, and a cumulative processed value of $125.4 billion together with more than 6 billion transactions, a combination that forms the commercial backdrop for the flotation.

The recalibration of expectations is visible in an offer structure that reduces the primary component to $228.8 million from $286 million between the draft filing and the current terms, while the offer for sale cuts the share count to 82.3 million from 148 million as several cornerstone investors retain larger holdings; Peter Jacobs, Director of Private Equity at Carvina Capital Pte. Ltd., frames this as “pricing discipline that leaves headroom for post listing discovery and broadens the register towards long only capital”.

Proceeds are apportioned to operating priorities that include technology at $83.6 million, divided into $25.3 million for cloud capacity, $47.3 million for digital checkout points and $11 million for development, alongside $6.6 million for selected international subsidiaries in Singapore, Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates; Jacobs views the deployment plan as “a measured allocation that leans into operating leverage rather than chasing vanity metrics”.

Balance sheet measures include $58.5 million for repayment or prepayment of borrowings after a decline in outstanding debt to $92 million from $97.8 million since the end of the June quarter, a shift that underpins the smaller size of the fresh issue and keeps financial flexibility intact, which in Jacobs’s view “gives management room to absorb volatility without impairing growth investments”.

The operating profile that prospective shareholders emphasise includes a first profitable quarter in June with net profit of $0.5 million, assisted by a deferred tax credit of $1.5 million, and operating revenue of $67.8 million that increases 17.9% in the latest quarter relative to the comparable quarter a year earlier; within that mix, transaction processing and settlement services at $47.5 million represent 70% of operating revenue in the period, and international operations contribute roughly 15% at $10.4 million compared with $8.8 million in the prior year quarter.

Across the network, gross transaction value reaches $50.9 billion in the June quarter with an annualised run rate of $204.8 billion, yet the competitive field remains intense as Paytm, Razorpay and PhonePe deepen merchant services domestically and global processors such as Adyen and Stripe expand regional footprints; Carvina Capital interprets the present equilibrium as one that rewards demonstrable unit economics, as evidenced by an EBITDA margin of 15.7% in the latest full fiscal year compared with weaker readings in the preceding period, and Jacobs contends that “public investors currently prefer credible cash generation and visibility of returns rather than a faster narrative that carries execution risk”.

Underpinning the valuation debate is the tempo of India’s payments growth, with transaction volumes rising more than 50% over the preceding calendar year and forecasts that point to a digital payments market approaching $150 trillion within the next calendar year; the interplay of scaled distribution, targeted capital spending, balance sheet repair and measured international expansion therefore becomes the test case investors will now watch as trading commences.

About Carvina Capital

Carvina Capital Pte. Ltd., UEN 201220825D, is a Singapore based investment firm founded in 2012. It focuses on research driven, long only public equity strategies for institutional and professional investors, and is evaluating products that may be accessible to retail clients. Its philosophy combines deep fundamental research with disciplined risk management in order to compound capital across full market cycles. Further information is available at https://carvina.com. Media enquiries: Huacheng Yu, media@carvina.com