Following the news that Singapore-based online gaming and e-commerce firm Sea Limited (Sea) will raise over US$6bn;  

Aurojyoti Bose, Lead Analyst at GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company, offers his view:

“The fund raising, which comes at a time of recovery in cross-border issuance across the Asia-Pacific region, will help Sea not only in business and geographic expansion, but also to pursue inorganic growth and investment strategies.

“Apart from Asia, Sea has been scaling up its business expansion in Latin American and European markets. Sea has presence in Latin American markets such as Brazil, Chile, Columbia and Mexico. The company is also eying European expansion with foray into Poland.

“An analysis of GlobalData’s Financial Deals database reveals that historically the company has been making some strategic investments and acquisitions with some of them also outside the Asian market.

“Some such moves include investments in companies such as Spain-based Unusuall and China-based Wecash Technology Co Ltd; and the acquisition of Singapore-based football club, Home United and a majority stake in Vietnam-based Foody.

“In its domestic market, Sea had already won a digital-banking license and acquired Indonesia-based PT Bank Kesejahteraan Ekonomi (Bank BKE). The massive capital will help the company to grow beyond e-commerce and gaming, and grab the investment and acquisition opportunities in fintech space.”