Singapore-based Internet giant Sea has filed for a potential Initial Public Offering (IPO) with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). As per a report on Bloomberg, the listing is expected to raise $1 billion.
Sea is keen to go public early next year, however, this has not been finalized yet. The cited sources reveal that it is working with Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley on the share sale. Under the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act, firms with less than $1 billion in annual revenue can file for an IPO with the SEC privately. Also, they can work out on the details outside the public eye.
Various speculations have been doing rounds for the past year that Sea has been moving towards its goal to public.
This news comes just a few after Sea, earlier known as Garena, rebranded and raised $550 million. It had revealed it will be deploying the inflow of funds to extend its e-commerce unit Shopee in Indonesia. The investors who fueled in the capital included GDP Venture, Hillhouse Capital, JG Summit Holdings, Farallon Capital Management, Cathay Financial Holding Co. and Uni-President Enterprises.
Incorporated in 2009 by Forrest Li, Sea currently offers its services across three sectors – entertainment, e-commerce, and financial services. Its FinTech platform AirPay is an e-wallet that is functional via a mobile app. Shopee, the e-commerce unit, enables SMBs to connect with online customers, provides an integrated payment gateway and third-party logistics capabilities. Whereas, its digital entertainment platform Garena’s offerings focus on gaming ecosystem.
According to the data compiled by Bloomberg, this would be supposedly the largest technology IPO out of Southeast Asia. However, this listing will certainly serve as a huge blow to Singapore which has been encouraging local startups to list in SGX.
