On the back of strong demand from investors, New-York-listed Sea Limited announced the completion of its convertible notes offering at $575 million, after exercising the 15 per cent greenshoe option, said the company in a statement.
The size of the offering was increased from the initial $400m to $500m, and now with the exercise of the full greenshoe option by the initial purchaser, the final note size has reached $575 million.
The net proceeds from the offering will be used for business expansion and other general corporate purposes, including supporting the growth of its e-commerce platform Shopee.
“The enthusiastic response to this offering highlights the strength of global investor interest in Sea’s unique position at the heart of our region’s burgeoning consumer growth story, and we believe this convertible notes offering is a highly cost-effective means for us to tap into this demand,” said Sea chairman and group CEO, Forrest Li.
Tencent Holdings was expected to purchase up to $50 million of the offering, while up to $30 million of the notes would be bought by an affiliate of one of Sea’s directors. Tencent is Sea’s largest shareholder.
Li added: “Shopee is scaling rapidly, ahead of our already ambitious expectations, and benefiting from ever improving cost efficiencies as it grows. We intend to continue to invest in extending our leadership position in e-commerce, and in providing new and innovative services that will ensure buyers and sellers across the region enjoy a superior e-commerce experience on Shopee.”
According to Sea, Shopee has recorded $1.9 billion gross merchandise value (GMV) for the first quarter of 2018, a 199.5 percent year-on-year increase.
The company also expects the e-commerce GMV for the full year of 2018 to range between $8.2 billion and $8.7 billion, a 99.4 per cent to 111.5 per cent growth from 2017. Previously, it predicted the e-commerce GMV would be between $7.5 billion and $8 billion, an 82.4 per cent to 94.5 per cent growth.
Sea was founded in 2009 as an online gaming company named Garena, which was then rebranded and branched out to digital service Airpay in 2014 and e-commerce Shopee in 2015.
The convertible senior note offering was advised by Hong Kong-based Maples and Calder. Sea’s stock closed Monday at $15.56, up 0.32 per cent.
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Singapore’s Sea prices $500m convertible note, Tencent to pick up to $50m of issue
Singapore’s Sea mulls raising funds for e-commerce unit as quarterly loss triples
