Shares of Manipal Payment & Identity Solutions made a weak stock market debut on September 17, opening at a discount to the issue price on both BSE and NSE. On the BSE, shares opened at ₹332, reflecting a discount of ₹7 or 2.06% to the IPO issue price of ₹339 per share. However, the stock has since slipped further to ₹322.65 at 10:15 IST, representing a discount of 4.82% to the issue price. On the NSE, shares started trading at ₹330, translating into a discount of ₹9 or 2.65% to the issue price. The stock has hit a high of ₹340.05 and a low of ₹320.80 during the trading session, with over 4.04 lakh shares traded on the BSE. The listing was largely in line with expectations as the grey market premium (GMP) for the IPO was at -₹6, suggesting a discount of 1.77%. The weak listing performance reflects tepid investor sentiment despite the company's strong market position in India's digital payments and identity infrastructure ecosystem.
The IPO was subscribed 1.42 times overall by the close of bidding on September 11, with investors placing bids for 18.51 crore shares against 13.06 crore shares on offer. As reported by Business Standard, the Retail Individual Investors (RII) category was subscribed 2.19 times, while the Non-Institutional Investors (NII) portion received 1.22 times subscription. The ₹805 crore initial public offering was open for subscription from September 9 to September 11, with the price band fixed at ₹322-339 per share and a lot size of 44 shares. At the upper price band, the IPO values Manipal Payment at an estimated post-issue market capitalisation of ₹7,858 crore. The qualified institutional buyer (QIB) segment received 1.26 times bids, indicating mixed institutional interest in the offering.
The IPO comprised a fresh issue of equity shares aggregating to ₹320 crore, along with an Offer for Sale (OFS) of up to 1.43 crore equity shares worth ₹485 crore by promoter Manipal Technologies. According to Business Standard, Manipal Payment plans to deploy around ₹238.4 crore from the fresh issue towards the purchase and installation of new and second-hand equipment at its facilities in Manipal, Chennai, Navi Mumbai and the Chhattisgarh Regional Transport Office (RTO). The remaining proceeds will be used for general corporate purposes. For the year ended March 2026, Manipal Payment's revenue rose 5.6% year-on-year to ₹1,326.8 crore, while profit after tax (PAT) declined 10.2% to ₹253.5 crore. The company attributed part of the decline to a high base in the previous year, which included exceptional gains of ₹110 crore. The promoter shareholding in the company will decline to 53.92% post-IPO from 62.65% pre-IPO.
According to Business Standard, Manipal Payment plans to deploy ₹238.43 crore from the fresh issue proceeds for funding capital expenditure requirements towards purchasing and setting up new and second-hand equipment. The company has outlined a detailed capex timeline: ₹170.4 crore in FY2027, ₹18.96 crore in FY2028 and ₹49.07 crore in FY2029. The capex will be utilized across multiple facilities including card manufacturing facilities in Manipal, personalization bureaus and cheque printing facilities in Chennai, Noida, Navi Mumbai, and Howrah, central cards processing centers at Chhattisgarh RTO, and Smart Tagging and IoT Solutions facility in Manipal. The remaining proceeds will be used for general corporate purposes.
Ahead of the public issue, Manipal Payment raised ₹362.25 crore from 36 anchor investors on September 8, allotting 1.06 crore equity shares to anchor investors at ₹339 apiece. According to CNBC TV18, among the anchor investors, 35.1 lakh shares were subscribed by 16 schemes across four domestic mutual fund houses, including Motilal Oswal Asset Management Company, Baroda BNP Paribas Mutual Fund, ITI Mutual Fund and Groww Mutual Fund. Other participants included New Mark Capital AIF, SageOne, Sanshi Funds, Alpha Alternatives Financial Services, Emerge Capital and SVAN Velocity Fund. Motilal Oswal Investment Advisors Ltd, Axis Capital Ltd, ICICI Securities Ltd, IIFL Capital Services Ltd and Nuvama Wealth acted as the book-running lead managers to the issue, while MUFG Intime India Pvt. Ltd. served as the registrar. The anchor book included Morgan Stanley, Nomura Singapore, Citigroup and Alchemy, demonstrating strong international institutional interest.
Manipal Payment & Identity Solutions, incorporated in 2008 and part of the Manipal Group, provides payment, identification, secure solutions, smart-tagging and Internet of Things (IoT) solutions to banks, fintech companies, non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) and government entities in India and overseas. The company's product portfolio includes payment cards, cheque solutions, NFC/QR codes, payment-enabled wearables, driving licences, registration certificates, national identity cards, secure logistics, security-enhanced packaging, excise labels, RFID-based track-and-trace, and anti-counterfeiting solutions. According to Business Standard, Manipal Payment is positioned to benefit from increasing digital payment adoption, financial inclusion initiatives, demand for secure authentication solutions and rising outsourcing of payment infrastructure by banks and institutions. The company describes itself as one of the largest payment card manufacturers globally and in India, estimating its market share at 36.4% of credit card issuance and 30.9% of debit card issuance in FY26. Among the existing public shareholders, Touchstone Trust will hold 6.35%, Nuvama 5.65%, Think Investments 2.74%, Mukul Agrawal 2.47% and Amicus Capital Partners 2.19%. The company catered to over 300 customers in FY26 through 10 facilities across India and had over 1,800 employees as of March 2026, with outstanding debt standing at ₹116.18 crore as of June 2026.
