Regional internet firm Sea Ltd on Monday announced that it has raised a total of $1.5 billion in its upsized offering of American Depositary Shares (ADSs) in the US after selling a total of 69 million shares at $22.50 each.
The NYSE-listed firm had earlier announced plans to sell 50 million shares when the deal was launched. The offering size was increased to 60 million, with the underwriters fully exercising their option to purchase an additional 9 million ADSs.
The company expects to use the net proceeds from this offering for business expansion and other general corporate purposes. Sea founder and CEO Forrest Li said the success of the offering gives the company a “very strong cash position” to support its ambitious growth plan.
The company had about $1 billion of cash and cash equivalents on its balance sheet as of December-end 2018. Sea, whose net loss widened to $961 million for 2018, has forecast that its annual adjusted revenues for both its gaming and e-commerce arms – Garena and Shopee – will more than double in 2019.
Goldman Sachs (Asia) L.L.C. and Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC acted as joint bookrunners and China International Capital Corporation Hong Kong Securities Limited acted as a co-manager for the offering.
Li said, Shopee’s rapid ascent to regional leadership in just three years is a great example of how Sea allocates capital “smartly and nimbly”.
“We intend to continue to invest in solidifying its leadership position, and enhancing the long-term sustainability of the platform,” he added.
Sea Ltd said its in-house game Free Fire continues to see success. The game boasts more than 100 million monthly active users and is the fourth most downloaded game across Apple app Store and Google Play Store. Free Fire, one of Garena’s self-developed games, has quickly become one of the most popular mobile games in the world, particularly in fast-growth markets like Southeast Asia and Latin America, added Li.
“Building on our unrivaled experience serving gamers in Southeast Asia, and our pipeline of new game titles, we plan to expand Garena’s capabilities to identify and address the needs of more gamers in more of these important markets globally,” he said.
Last year, Sea had raised $575 million via a convertible note offering. The company had then said that strong demand from investors had led it to increase the offering size from its initial target of issuing $400 million worth of convertible senior notes due 2023.
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