The biggest equity offering of the year is set to come from Singapore as the online gaming, e-commerce, and FinTech all-in-one company Sea Ltd (SE) is looking to raise $6.3b through 11 million new shares and $2.5b of equity-linked debt.
The Tencent-backed company operates as a video games developer, an e-commerce platform across Southeast Asia, and a regional digital payments provider. During Covid-19, the firm saw a rapid growth in its market share (and its stock) as both e-commerce and gaming levels saw an uptick.
Armed with the momentum, the company aims to use the offering proceeds to expand into new business lines and geographies such as e-commerce for Latin America and food delivery regionally. As competition within the tech industry intensifies, an expansion into new verticals becomes the logical next step. In-line with ambitious growth plans, Sea Ltd’s stock has risen by more than 70% since the start of the year.
Why it matters
Asia’s equity offerings are breaking record after record. Before Sea Ltd, EV-maker Nio Inc announced on Tuesday what has now become the biggest US offering by a Chinese company. Prior to that, ride-hailing app Didi (DIDI) was the proud holder of the title.