Sea Sales Double As Asian Shoppers Go Online During Pandemic



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(Bloomberg) – Sea Ltd. expects e-commerce revenue to double in 2021, maintaining its torrid pace of growth as Southeast Asia’s most valuable company expects regional demand for online shopping to persist after the pandemic .

Revenue rose to $ 1.6 billion in the final three months of 2020 from $ 777.2 million a year earlier, Singapore-based Sea said in a statement on Tuesday. The net loss widened to $ 523.6 million from $ 283.8 million.

Sea, backed by Tencent Holdings Ltd., has become a stock market sensation since its initial public offering in New York in 2017 as investors bet the company can establish itself as a leader in e-commerce and gaming in the world. Southeast Asian. Among companies valued at $ 100 billion or more, the stock has ranked first in Asia since the beginning of last year and only trailed Tesla Inc. globally.

It is also trying to establish fintechs as a third growth engine. Sea said Tuesday that it acquired 100% of Composite Capital Management, a global investment management firm licensed in Hong Kong. With the acquisition, the company is establishing Sea Capital, a platform to manage its overall investments.

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Key ideas

The pandemic is helping to stimulate demand at Shopee, Sea’s e-commerce business, with fourth-quarter sales increasing 178% to $ 842.2 million. Sea forecast 2021 revenue at Shopee of $ 4.5 billion to $ 4.7 billion, up from $ 2.2 billion in 2020 The hit mobile game Free Fire is fueling the growth of Sea Garena’s digital entertainment service, whose sales last year. last quarter they increased 71.6% to $ 693.4 million. Sea forecasts Garena’s annual bookings (sales plus deferred revenue changes) to grow from $ 4.3 billion to $ 4.5 billion in 2021. Its e-wallet service gained traction, with a payment volume exceeding $ 2.9 billion. for the quarter and $ 7.8 billion for the full year. . Sea is trying to make financial services its third pillar of growth.

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Selling and marketing expenses for the fourth quarter rose 95% to $ 665.2 million, led by digital financial services. By 2020, Sea posted a total of $ 3.2 billion in digital entertainment bookings. Annual revenue at Garena increased 77.5% to $ 2 billion.

Market reaction

Sea’s US deposit receipts were up 5.9% as of 10:03 a.m. in New York on Tuesday.

(Updates with US Stock Trading)

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