In What Could Be Asia’s Biggest Fundraising, Sea Plans To Raise $6.3 Billion

Southeast Asian e-commerce and gaming company, Sea, is looking out to raise $6.3 billion in a share and convertible bond sale, in what could be Southeast Asia’s biggest capital raising.

The Singapore-based company in its regulatory filing on Thursday said it plans to sell 11 million American Depository Receipts (ADRs), with the option to offer 1.65 million more as part of a “greenshoe option”. In addition, it is raising $2.5 billion in a convertible bond that has a $375 million greenshoe attached.

The new fundraising is coming in less than a year after the giant company, valued at $185 billion, had its first major capital raising. In December last year, Sea raised $2.57 billion in a discounted share sale at $195 a share. According to a statement, Sea priced the sale of 13.2 million American Depositary Shares at $195 each, increasing the size from 11 million because of strong demand. The company also finalized a $1 billion convertible bond sale in May 2020.

In the past few months, fintech and e-commerce companies in Southeast Asia have been securing impressive amounts of funds as global investors have taken a keen interest in the post-pandemic technology emerging in the region. Data from Refinitiv showed that companies have raised a total of $15.67 billion in equity capital markets in Southeast Asia in 2021, impressively higher than the $11.8 billion raised in 2020.

With the new funds, Sea, Southeast Asia’s largest firm by market capitalization, plans to scale up its global expansion by testing out possible new markets. More specifically, Sea’s e-commerce platform Shopee plans to expand into Europe and India. Sea added that the new capital will be used for general corporate purposes, including strategic investments and acquisitions.

Sea’s stock price closed at $343.8 in New York on Wednesday, but its share sale could raise to $3.8billion. Shares of the company have risen 72.72 percent this year, after an almost five-fold jump in 2020, thanks to an increase in demand brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic which restricted movement and forced people to stay at home.