Bench Mark Infotech Services Limited IPO

01At a glance

What the company does: designs, supplies, installs and maintains IT and communication infrastructure (networks, audio-visual and classroom systems, CCTV and access control, data storage) and provides fibre optic lines and fibre works, mainly for government departments and public sector undertakings (RHP p.130).

Who pays it: government customers were 73.10% of FY26 revenue and 95.01% of FY25 revenue (RHP p.28). The ten largest customers, who are not named, provided 94.19% of FY26 revenue (RHP p.27). RailTel Corporation of India and Bihar State Electronics Development Corporation appear repeatedly as the ordering party in the list of completed orders (RHP p.138) and in the order book at September 15, 2026 (RHP p.140).

Why it is raising money: up to ₹3,000.00 lakh of the fresh issue is for working capital in FY27 and FY28, and the balance, not yet stated, is for general corporate purposes (RHP p.92). Our arithmetic: at ₹110 the 34,00,000 new shares raise ₹3,740.00 lakh before expenses, and the 4,58,000 shares offered by Vineet Kumar Gupta bring ₹503.80 lakh to the selling shareholder, not to the company (RHP p.54).

How fast it has grown: revenue rose from ₹3,409.51 lakh in FY24 to ₹6,052.76 lakh in FY26, a compound rate of 33.24% a year, as the prospectus states (RHP p.132). Our arithmetic: profit after tax rose from ₹148.02 lakh to ₹1,021.80 lakh over the same two years, about 162.7% a year (RHP p.59).

The one thing to understand: profit and cash moved in opposite directions in FY26. Profit after tax was ₹1,021.80 lakh (RHP p.59), while operating cash flow was negative ₹676.52 lakh because trade receivables rose by ₹1,743.52 lakh in the year (RHP p.60), to ₹5,497.96 lakh or 90.83% of FY26 revenue (RHP p.30). Other income, mostly ₹293.47 lakh of old supplier balances written back, was 25.41% of FY26 profit before tax (RHP p.226).

02The business, in plain words

Bench Mark Infotech Services was incorporated in Kolkata in January 2007 and became a public company on June 22, 2026 (RHP p.170). It works as a system integrator: it purchases switches, routers, cameras, displays, servers and cables from equipment makers and authorised vendors, designs the system to the tender's specification, installs and commissions it at the customer's site, and then offers maintenance (RHP p.131). It also provides fibre optic lines and trenching, ducting and restoration work (RHP p.146). It does not own a fibre network; it rents fibre from third-party operators and books the rent as project cost (RHP p.142).

A government department or public sector unit tenders a network, surveillance or classroom project → the company bids, directly or through partners such as RailTel → it procures the equipment and installs it, typically in 2 to 3 months → it bills against milestones and is paid after the customer's certification and approvals (RHP p.131).

Most work is won by tender, usually awarded to the lowest bidder that meets the eligibility criteria (RHP p.28). The company is empanelled with BSNL as a national-level system integrator and with RailTel as a business partner (RHP p.131). It runs from a leased office in Kolkata, a rented branch office in Patna and a leased warehouse in Kolkata (RHP p.159), and had 54 employees on its rolls at June 30, 2026, with project labour engaged through contractors (RHP p.157). In FY26 it added data storage and data centre work, and it has started offering AI lab set-ups and cyber security products (RHP p.130).

Earnings equation: Profit ≈ value of projects executed − equipment purchased − installation, fibre rent and other project costs − staff and overheads − interest. In FY26 revenue was ₹6,052.76 lakh against purchases of ₹2,231.97 lakh, direct project expenses of ₹2,097.52 lakh, staff cost of ₹318.51 lakh and other expenses of ₹387.20 lakh (RHP p.59). The prospectus does not give the number of projects executed or their average size, so the equation cannot be written in units.

03Where the money comes from

Source: RHP p.143. Within integrated IT solutions, FY26 revenue was 32.89% audio-visual and display, 15.86% network and connectivity, 14.63% enclosures and ancillary installations, 13.58% safety, security and access control and 6.40% data storage, each as a share of total revenue (RHP p.146). Leasing or renting of fibre brought in ₹722.08 lakh, 11.93% of FY26 revenue (RHP p.147). By state, Bihar was 43.30%, Odisha 20.16% and West Bengal 16.58% of FY26 revenue; in FY25 Bihar alone was 72.06% (RHP p.29).

Source: RHP p.27. Revenue depends on a few customers: the top ten provided between 89.08% and 94.19% of revenue in each of the three years, and the largest single customer between 25.21% and 60.93% (RHP p.27). The management discussion states that the company is not dependent on a single or few customers (RHP p.266). In FY26, 23 of its 41 customers were repeat customers (RHP p.148).

04The growth record

Source: RHP p.59, RHP p.60, RHP p.103, RHP p.278, RHP p.58. The company's EBITDA includes other income and is measured against total income, which gives margins of 6.56%, 16.30% and 21.97% (RHP p.103). Return on equity was 15.16%, 43.45% and 47.65%, and return on capital employed 18.51%, 48.08% and 47.74% (RHP p.103).

Our arithmetic: from FY24 to FY26 revenue grew about 33.2% a year, EBITDA excluding other income about 158.1% a year and profit after tax about 162.7% a year; the margin of EBITDA excluding other income on revenue rose from 4.66% to 17.50%, or 1,284 basis points, and the PAT margin rose 1,254 basis points (RHP p.278). FY24 and FY25 were audited by G Sah & Company and FY26 by Goyal Goyal & Co. (RHP p.199). Restatement reduced FY26 profit after tax from the audited ₹1,173.19 lakh to ₹1,021.80 lakh (RHP p.210). Receivable days rose from 239 in FY24 to 280 in FY26 (RHP p.30).

05What the growth is made of

Revenue rose from ₹3,409.51 lakh in FY24 to ₹6,052.76 lakh in FY26 (RHP p.59). Our arithmetic: of the ₹2,643.25 lakh increase, integrated IT solutions contributed ₹2,300.67 lakh, maintenance ₹172.53 lakh and fibre ₹170.05 lakh (RHP p.143). Within IT solutions the mix changed: audio-visual and display rose from ₹285.77 lakh to ₹1,990.67 lakh, enclosures and ancillary installations from ₹96.40 lakh to ₹885.36 lakh and data storage from nil to ₹387.41 lakh, while network and connectivity fell from ₹2,076.85 lakh to ₹960.04 lakh (RHP p.146).

Non-government revenue rose from ₹249.60 lakh in FY25 to ₹1,628.22 lakh in FY26 (RHP p.153), which the company links to non-government projects executed with coal subsidiaries (RHP p.94). The list of completed orders includes a ₹1,515.21 lakh RailTel order for Central Coalfields, executed with a consortium partner on a 50:50 ratio, dated as awarded on 25 March 2026 and completed in 2025-26 (RHP p.138). The number of tenders won fell from 23 to 19 to 14, and their value from ₹1,798.82 lakh to ₹1,040.44 lakh (RHP p.31).

The offer document does not disclose the number of projects executed, sites installed or equipment units supplied, so the increase cannot be separated into volume and price. The management discussion describes the FY26 revenue increase as “primarily attributable to the write-back of certain long-outstanding and non-moving vendor balances” (RHP p.257), although the write-back is recorded in other income, not in revenue (RHP p.223).

06Earnings quality

The item that needs explaining is FY26. The company classifies the ₹293.47 lakh of creditors written back as non-recurring and not related to its business activity (RHP p.226). Its own measure of operating EBITDA, which removes other income and adds back the ₹110.99 lakh of balances written off, was ₹1,170.37 lakh, a margin of 19.34% against 15.04% in FY25 (RHP p.259). Cash went the other way: receivables rose by ₹1,743.52 lakh (RHP p.60), and receivables aged six months to a year rose from ₹141.06 lakh to ₹769.61 lakh (RHP p.262).

The statements of stock and book debts filed with Punjab National Bank differ from the books in several quarters; at the first quarter of FY26 book debts were ₹5,172.76 lakh in the books and ₹3,591.89 lakh in the statement filed, which the company attributes to statements prepared on provisional accounts (RHP p.238).

07The balance sheet

At March 2026 borrowings were ₹270.64 lakh: a Punjab National Bank overdraft of ₹50.12 lakh against a ₹300.00 lakh limit, a vehicle loan of ₹80.32 lakh, interest-free loans from the two promoters of ₹137.70 lakh and ₹2.50 lakh of other loans (RHP p.244). Cash and cash equivalents were ₹109.14 lakh (RHP p.60), with a further ₹538.02 lakh in fixed deposits of more than three months, some given as collateral (RHP p.220), and ₹377.78 lakh of longer deposits (RHP p.219). The company notes that bank balance confirmations for its deposits were not available and the balances were checked against the deposit receipts (RHP p.219).

Trade payables were ₹3,448.28 lakh, of which ₹1,236.95 lakh was owed to two material creditors who are not named in the prospectus (RHP p.271). Of the ₹500.00 lakh bank guarantee limit, ₹498.04 lakh was in use at July 31, 2026 (RHP p.244). Contingent liabilities were nil; capital commitments were ₹150.97 lakh, the unpaid balance on a ₹300.00 lakh leasehold industrial plot allotted by the Bihar Industrial Area Development Authority (RHP p.61).

Our arithmetic: the right-hand column adds the ₹3,740.00 lakh of gross fresh-issue proceeds at ₹110 to net worth and cash, before issue expenses and before any of it is spent (RHP p.54). The objects are working capital and general corporate purposes only, with no repayment of debt (RHP p.91).

08What the money is for

Source: RHP p.92; the percentage is our arithmetic. The company plans to deploy ₹1,000.00 lakh of the working capital money in FY27 and ₹2,000.00 lakh in FY28 (RHP p.92). General corporate purposes are capped at 15% of the amount the company raises or ₹1,000 lakh, whichever is lower (RHP p.92); our arithmetic puts that cap at ₹561.00 lakh at ₹110.

The company's own working capital estimate assumes receivable days of 284 and 279 and payable days falling from 270 to 217 and 183 in FY27 and FY28 (RHP p.94). The objects have not been appraised by any bank or agency (RHP p.98), and no monitoring agency is appointed because the issue is below ₹5,000 lakh (RHP p.98).

Into the business: up to 34,00,000 new shares, ₹3,740.00 lakh at the upper band and ₹3,536.00 lakh at the lower band, before expenses (our arithmetic, RHP p.54). To the selling shareholder: 4,58,000 shares offered by Vineet Kumar Gupta, ₹503.80 lakh at the upper band (our arithmetic, RHP p.91).

09Who is selling

Source: RHP p.55, RHP p.91; the percentage is our arithmetic. The weighted average cost of acquisition of the shares offered is ₹0.08 a share (RHP p.1).

10Promoters

The promoters are Vineet Kumar Gupta, aged 48, the chairman and managing director, a director since the company was incorporated in 2007, with over 20 years in IT and consulting services, and Juli Gupta, aged 41, a director since December 15, 2016, who oversees solution design (RHP p.177) and was appointed executive director on June 25, 2026 (RHP p.180). The prospectus states that the two are spouses (RHP p.178).

Vineet Kumar Gupta's other ventures include Benchmark ISP Private Limited and Leksa Lighting Technologies Private Limited; Juli Gupta's include Lytmaster Tech Solutions LLP, Titas Tradelink Private Limited and Benchmark ISP (RHP p.189). Leksa Lighting Technologies reported FY25 revenue of ₹6,781.89 lakh and profit of ₹1,053.72 lakh (RHP p.194). None of the group companies is listed (RHP p.195).

The company paid Vineet Kumar Gupta ₹102.00 lakh and Juli Gupta ₹30.00 lakh in FY26 (RHP p.62). Together the two promoters were paid ₹120.00 lakh in FY24, ₹108.00 lakh in FY25 and ₹132.00 lakh in FY26 (RHP p.62). The terms approved in June 2026 allow the chairman and managing director up to ₹120.00 lakh a year with annual increments of up to 50% (RHP p.178). Both promoters have given personal guarantees for the company's bank facilities (RHP p.190). None of their shares is pledged (RHP p.85), and there is no criminal, regulatory, civil or tax case against either promoter (RHP p.39).

Promoter economics: the average cost of acquisition is ₹0.08 a share for Vineet Kumar Gupta and ₹0.20 for Juli Gupta (RHP p.49).

Their shares were subscribed at ₹10 and ₹20 between 2007 and 2014 (RHP p.79), and Vineet Kumar Gupta received 30,000 shares by gift in April 2024 and 12,650 shares by gift in October 2024 (RHP p.85) from Nand Rani Gupta and Bijoy Kumar Gupta, whom the promoter group list names as Vineet Kumar Gupta's late mother and father (RHP p.191).

A 100-for-1 bonus issue on May 8, 2026 took the share count from 1,07,650 to 1,08,72,650 (RHP p.79). On June 1, 2026 Vineet Kumar Gupta transferred 20 shares each to five people at ₹100 a share (RHP p.85); these five transfers are the transactions the prospectus uses for its price disclosure in the basis for the offer price (RHP p.108).

11Who already owns it

Source: RHP p.84 for the holdings before the issue; the holdings after assume the whole issue is allotted and are our arithmetic (RHP p.54). The five individuals are the CFO Jitendra Kumar Shaw, the non-executive director Rohit Midha, Rajat Prosad, Raju Mondal and Subha Nandi (RHP p.84). The company has seven shareholders (RHP p.83). Up to 28,54,530 of Vineet Kumar Gupta's shares, 20% of the post-issue capital, are locked in for three years as the minimum promoter contribution (RHP p.87). There is no private equity, venture capital or institutional holder.

12What changed just before the IPO

• The statutory auditor G Sah & Co. resigned on February 19, 2026, citing pre-occupation, and Goyal Goyal & Co. was appointed the next day (RHP p.70).
• Rohit Midha joined the board on February 20, 2026 (RHP p.176); two independent directors were appointed in June and July 2026 (RHP p.180), and a CFO and a company secretary on June 25, 2026 (RHP p.188).
• Authorised capital was raised on May 7, 2026 and a 100-for-1 bonus issued on May 8, 2026 (RHP p.79).
• The company converted into a public company on June 22, 2026 (RHP p.170) and added audio-visual, cyber security and fibre objects to its memorandum on July 23, 2026 (RHP p.172).
• The promoters lent the company ₹143.22 lakh in FY26, against ₹2.23 lakh in FY25 (RHP p.63).
• FY26 profit included ₹293.47 lakh of creditors written back (RHP p.223) and was reduced by ₹110.99 lakh of balances written off (RHP p.225).
• The company purchased a car for ₹86.31 lakh in FY26 (RHP p.221), financed by a ₹81.47 lakh vehicle loan whose charge was not registered with the Registrar of Companies (RHP p.239).
• It paid ₹149.03 lakh towards the Bihar industrial plot in FY25 and FY26 (RHP p.37).
• A compounding application for filing incorrect versions of the FY 2021-22 and FY 2022-23 financial statements was made to the Registrar of Companies on July 31, 2026 (RHP p.35).
• Juli Gupta resigned as a director of Benchmark ISP Private Limited on May 9, 2025 (RHP p.191).

13Capacity and expansion

The company describes itself as a service business with no plant and machinery, and says installed capacity and utilisation do not apply (RHP p.157). Its capacity is its project staff and its bank guarantee limit: it had 45 employees at March 2026, with attrition of 31.46% in FY26 (RHP p.34), and had used ₹498.04 lakh of its ₹500.00 lakh guarantee limit by July 31, 2026 (RHP p.244).

The order book was ₹1,217.73 lakh at September 15, 2026 (RHP p.140). The company is evaluating the Bihar plot for an assembly, integration and testing facility, but the proposal is at a preliminary stage with no timeline (RHP p.37). The issue does not fund capital expenditure (RHP p.92).

14Market size and industry structure

As claimed: the industry chapter is compiled from public websites and published sources, not from a report commissioned for the issue (RHP p.113). It cites an India IT services market of US$39.83 billion in 2024 (RHP p.125) and, from a market research website, an India networking market of US$114.07 million in 2023 (RHP p.128).

The part that is addressable: IT, communication and fibre infrastructure projects tendered by government bodies, public sector undertakings and institutions, mainly in eastern India. The prospectus does not size this market.

What the company is today: FY26 revenue of ₹6,052.76 lakh (RHP p.59). The prospectus gives the market figures in US dollars and does not size the company's segment, so no share can be worked out from the document.

Structure: government contracts are awarded by tender, typically to the lowest bidder that qualifies (RHP p.28). The company won 30.43% of its bids in FY26, against 41.07% in FY24 (RHP p.31). Customers' payments depend on milestone certification, internal approvals and budget releases (RHP p.262).

15Competitive position

Source: RHP p.103, RHP p.106, RHP p.107. The company says it competes on pricing, service delivery, operational reliability and quality standards (RHP p.160). What it can show: empanelment with BSNL and RailTel (RHP p.131), an Infrastructure Provider Category I registration from the Department of Telecommunications held since 2009 (RHP p.274), ISO certifications (RHP p.157), and an average relationship of 11 years with its largest customer (RHP p.147). It holds no registered trademark; its logo application is under objection (RHP p.275).

16Peers the company named

Peers named in the offer document: Dynacons Systems & Solutions, Xtranet Technologies and Esconet Technologies (RHP p.105).

Source: RHP p.102; peer P/E at closing prices of September 15, 2026 (RHP p.101). Our arithmetic: Dynacons' FY26 revenue is about 23.5 times the company's, and Xtranet's and Esconet's about 6.0 and 5.9 times (RHP p.106). The prices printed in the same table cannot be reproduced by multiplying each peer's EPS by its printed P/E, so this study uses the P/E figures as printed (RHP p.102).

17Valuation at the issue price

At the upper band of ₹110, with the full 34,00,000 new shares added to 1,08,72,650 existing shares (RHP p.78):

Source: RHP p.54, RHP p.59, RHP p.100, RHP p.101; all ratios are our arithmetic. At the lower band of ₹104 the market capitalisation is ₹14,843.56 lakh and the P/E on FY26 profit 14.5 times (RHP p.54).

Our arithmetic: enterprise value on the shares before the issue, with borrowings of ₹270.64 lakh and cash and cash equivalents of ₹109.14 lakh, is ₹12,121.42 lakh, 11.4 times the ₹1,059.38 lakh of EBITDA excluding other income and 8.6 times the company's own EBITDA of ₹1,405.83 lakh (RHP p.278). This does not deduct the ₹538.02 lakh of short fixed deposits or the ₹377.78 lakh of longer ones (RHP p.220).

Our arithmetic: after the issue, book value including the gross fresh proceeds would be about ₹6,395.11 lakh, and the market capitalisation at the upper band 2.5 times that (RHP p.58).

The three peers the prospectus names traded at 15.66, 26.55 and 50.87 times earnings on September 15, 2026, an average of 31.03 (RHP p.101). At the upper band the issue is priced at 11.7 times FY26 EPS on the prospectus's own share basis and 15.4 times FY26 profit on the enlarged share count; both are below the lowest of the three peer figures. The last transfers of the company's shares, on June 1, 2026, were at ₹100 (RHP p.109). Individual investors must apply for at least two lots, with an application above ₹2 lakh (RHP p.304); at the upper band two lots of 1,200 shares cost ₹2,64,000.

18Risks, in plain words

Customers: the ten largest customers provided 94.19% of FY26 revenue (RHP p.27) → the loss of one or two would move revenue sharply, and there are no long-term contracts (RHP p.27) → the largest customer alone was 60.93% of FY25 revenue (RHP p.27).

Government and tenders: government customers were 73.10% of FY26 revenue (RHP p.28) → revenue depends on winning tenders, typically at the lowest price → the share of bids won fell from 41.07% in FY24 to 30.43% in FY26 (RHP p.31).

Geography: Bihar, Odisha and West Bengal provided 80.04% of FY26 revenue (RHP p.29) → budget or policy changes in those states reach the whole company → Bihar alone was 72.06% of FY25 revenue (RHP p.29).

Collections: trade receivables were ₹5,497.96 lakh at March 2026 (RHP p.30) → slow payment ties up cash and has already turned operating cash flow negative (RHP p.60) → ₹1,017.21 lakh had been outstanding for more than a year, 38.31% of net worth (RHP p.32).

Suppliers: the ten largest suppliers were 59.60% of FY26 purchases and direct expenses, the largest 18.68% (RHP p.28) → there are no long-term supply contracts, so equipment prices and availability can change between bid and delivery (RHP p.31).

Guarantees and funding: tenders require bid and performance bank guarantees (RHP p.36) → the company had used ₹498.04 lakh of its ₹500.00 lakh guarantee limit by July 31, 2026 (RHP p.244) → the promoters' ₹137.70 lakh of loans have no fixed repayment schedule and can be recalled (RHP p.38).

Compliance: the prospectus lists filing errors and delays with the Registrar of Companies (RHP p.35) → penalties or compounding fees may follow, to be paid from internal accruals (RHP p.36) → delayed payments to small suppliers left ₹17.93 lakh of interest unpaid and led to ₹388.40 lakh being disallowed for tax (RHP p.37), and interest on late tax payments was ₹18.59 lakh in FY26 (RHP p.224).

Staff: attrition was 31.46% in FY26 (RHP p.34) → projects depend on technical staff → the company had 45 employees at March 2026 (RHP p.34).

Issue-specific: no monitoring agency will oversee the use of proceeds (RHP p.48), the objects have not been appraised (RHP p.47), and the promoter offering shares in the issue has an average cost of ₹0.08 a share (RHP p.49).

19Litigation and regulatory matters

The arbitration was brought by the company after an insolvency application against the same respondent was dismissed in July 2022 because a dispute already existed (RHP p.268). There are no outstanding tax cases against the directors (RHP p.269) or the promoters (RHP p.270).

20Related-party transactions

Source: RHP p.62, RHP p.63. The prospectus describes Victrix Tradelink LLP as an LLP in which a relative of a director is a designated partner, Bizarre Infratech as a company in which a relative of a director is a director, and Benchmark Infotech as a proprietorship of a relative of a director, without naming the relatives (RHP p.62). Victrix Tradelink and Bizarre Infratech are promoter group entities (RHP p.192). All related-party transactions came to ₹608.46 lakh, ₹377.40 lakh and ₹679.72 lakh in the three years (RHP p.38).

At March 2026 related parties owed the company ₹273.42 lakh in trade receivables, including ₹106.30 lakh from Victrix Tradelink and ₹95.60 lakh from Bizarre Infratech, and the company owed the promoters ₹105.64 lakh of remuneration (RHP p.231). What changed: sales to Bizarre Infratech began in FY25 and rose in FY26, sales to Benchmark Infotech stopped in FY26, and Juli Gupta lent ₹70.07 lakh in FY26 after no loans in earlier years (RHP p.63).

Other income in FY25 included ₹5.34 lakh of interest on an unsecured loan (RHP p.223), the same amount the related-party table shows as interest on a loan with Leksa Lighting Technologies, a company in which a director is a shareholder (RHP p.62). It has non-compete agreements with Benchmark ISP and Bizarre Infratech, whose constitutions allow the same line of business (RHP p.45).

21What the offer document does not say

The names of the largest customers and the revenue from each are not disclosed. The number of projects executed each year and their average value are not disclosed, and the prospectus does not reconcile FY26 revenue of ₹6,052.76 lakh with the ₹1,040.44 lakh value of tenders won in FY26 (RHP p.31). Gross margin by business line is not disclosed.

The creditors whose ₹293.47 lakh of balances were written back, and the balances written off, are not identified; the two material creditors are named only on the company's website (RHP p.271). The rent paid to third-party fibre operators, and the terms of those arrangements, are not set out. An annexure line states that the company has transactions with companies struck off the register, with no names or amounts (RHP p.239).

The relatives behind three related parties are not named. The price band, lot size, general corporate purposes amount and issue expenses are left blank.

22Five questions for management

1. Who were the largest and top five customers in FY26, and how much of the ₹5,497.96 lakh of receivables at March 2026 did each owe?
2. Which supplier balances made up the ₹293.47 lakh written back in FY26, how old were they, and were any of them owed to related parties?
3. How much FY26 revenue was recognised on the ₹1,515.21 lakh Central Coalfields order listed as awarded on 25 March 2026, and how much of it had been collected by March 31, 2026?
4. How much of the ₹1,017.21 lakh of receivables older than one year has been collected since March 2026?
5. Of the ₹722.08 lakh of FY26 fibre leasing revenue, how much was paid out as rent to the third-party network operators?

1Sources and cited facts

This study was read from 1 document the company filed. The 174 figures it cites are listed under the document each came from, with the page and the sentence as printed.