Mastercard Exits Pine Labs Via ₹934 Cr Bulk Deal
Pine Labs’ early backer Mastercard has exited the company by selling its entire 4.31% stake through a bulk deal on…
Mastercard, the early backer of Pine Labs, has sold its entire 4.31% stake in the company through a bulk deal on Tuesday. The investor offloaded 4.97 crore shares at ₹187.75 each, fetching ₹933.6 crore. This deal was executed at a 5% discount to Pine Labs’ closing price on that day. Major buyers of the shares included mutual funds and foreign institutional investors, with ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company purchasing the largest chunk of 93.1 lakh shares.
Other prominent buyers were Societe Generale, Citi Group, BNP Paribas, Goldman Sachs, Franklin Templeton, Kotak Mahindra Mutual Fund, Morgan Stanley, and Susquehanna Pacific. This marks Mastercard’s second significant stake sale in Pine Labs since its IPO in November 2025. The investor had sold 59.2 lakh shares during the IPO for ₹130.9 crore, generating 1.7 times returns on its initial investment.
Pine Labs was first backed by Mastercard in 2020. Several other early institutional backers of Pine Labs, such as Actis, Invesco, and Madison India, have also reduced their holdings since the company’s listing. Pine Labs’ stock has been volatile, with the recent exit occurring despite the stock recovering by over 25% in the past month, aided by the reintroduction of merchant discount rates (MDR) on UPI.
The stock closed at ₹197.55 on Tuesday, up 2.07% from the previous trading session. Positive brokerage commentary, including a 'Buy' rating and target price of ₹250 from Motilal Oswal, has supported the recent rally.
Written by urgent.news from Inc42's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
