Sea Limited, the company behind gaming giant Garena and e-commerce app Shopee, announced today that it has secured more than US$1.5 billion through the sale of 60 million American Depository Shares (ADS) at US$22.50 apiece. In addition, Sea reported, the underwriters – Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley – exercised their option to buy up an additional 9 million shares.
The firm intends to use the fresh injections for further business expansions and to support general corporate needs.
Sea has been making waves in Southeast Asia. Shopee has grown rapidly in the region, competing aggressively with older firms like Lazada. As for gaming, Sea claims that its first self-developed game Free Fire has quickly become one of the most popular mobile games in the world, particularly in fast-growth markets like Southeast Asia and Latin America. Profitability, however, still remains elusive for the Southeast Asian tech company.
This successful fundraising will give Sea’s cash position a boost, the firm said in its release, setting the stage for Sea to continue investing in the region,
Towards end-2018, Sea expanded its strategic tie-up with China’s largest gaming giant Tencent, allowing Sea to distribute and promote more of Tencent’s games in the region.
Editor: Nadine Freischlad