Pine Labs received permission from the Singapore Court to move its headquarters to India

Pine Labs, a merchant commerce platform, has received consent from a Singaporean court to combine its Indian firm, Pine Labs Private Limited (PLI), with its local entity, Pine Labs Limited (PLS). At this point, all PLS shareholders will also become PLI stockholders. Pine Labs is the third financial company to shift its headquarters to India, after Groww and PhonePe in doing so.

Pine Labs provides merchants with a variety of products and services, including cloud-connected point-of-sale machines, gifting and credit. The filing further states that following the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) order filed with the Registrar of Companies, the Singapore entity shall be dissolved without undergoing winding up.

Currently, a clutch of fintech firms including  KreditBee, Razorpay, Meesho, and Zepto have been working on shifting their ultimate holding entities to India. Most recently, Flipkart was in the headlines for shifting its base to India from Singapore.

In April, US-based investment firms Baron Funds and Invesco marked up the valuation of Pine Labs to $5.8 billion and $4.8 billion, respectively. It’s worth noting that the valuation plays a crucial role in deciding the quantum of tax liabilities for shifting the domicile.

Pine Labs has been trying for initial public offerings for the past few years. Last year, it also finalized bankers for the IPO in the US but the attempt didn’t materialize. The firm has not disclosed the timeline of listing on the bourses.

Of late, fintech companies have been laying emphasis to be headquartered in India as regulators’ job become easier as far as diligence and monitoring are concerned. However, the reverse flips require hefty tax liabilities.