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Pine Labs Receives Singapore Court Nod to Shift Base to India

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Merchant commerce and payments platform Pine Labs has received approval from a Singapore court to relocate its base to India. The court has sanctioned the amalgamation of Pine Labs Limited (PLS), the Singapore entity, with Pine Labs Private Limited (PLI), the Indian entity, as per the regulatory filing by PLS in Singapore.

Under the amalgamation agreement, the entire undertaking of PLS, including all assets and liabilities, will be transferred and vested in PLI. Consequently, all shareholders of PLS will become shareholders of PLI, and any pending legal proceedings against PLS will be continued by PLI.

The filing further details that following the order from the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) filed with the Registrar of Companies in India, PLS will be dissolved without undergoing the process of winding up.

This development, first reported by TechCrunch, marks a significant move for Pine Labs, which offers merchants a variety of products and services, including cloud-connected point-of-sale machines, gifting solutions, and credit facilities.

Pine Labs now joins the ranks of fintech companies such as PhonePe and Groww that have shifted their domicile from overseas to India. Other fintech firms, including KreditBee, Razorpay, Meesho, and Zepto, are also working on relocating their ultimate holding entities to India. Recently, Flipkart made headlines for moving its base from Singapore to India.

In April, US-based investment firms Baron Funds and Invesco increased the valuation of Pine Labs to $5.8 billion and $4.8 billion, respectively. This valuation is crucial for determining the tax liabilities associated with shifting the domicile.

Pine Labs has been pursuing an initial public offering (IPO) for several years. Last year, it finalized bankers for a US IPO, but the effort did not materialize. The company has not disclosed a new timeline for listing on the stock exchanges.

The trend of fintech companies moving their headquarters to India has been growing, as it simplifies regulatory diligence and monitoring. However, these relocations come with substantial tax liabilities. For example, PhonePe’s investors paid Rs 8,000 crore in taxes to complete its domicile shift to India.