Southeast Asian online services firm Sea applies for NYSE listing

SINGAPORE — Southeast Asia’s Sea Ltd, which provides e-commerce and digital payments services, is eyeing a $1-billion offering of new shares in aggregate in a proposed initial public offering (IPO) on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), according to a document it has filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

Goldman Sachs (Asia), Morgan Stanley & Co. International and Credit Suisse Securities ( USA) are joint bookrunners for the proposed IPO of its American depositary shares, the Singapore-based company said in a statement on Saturday.

The number of shares on offer and the price range have not yet been determined, said Sea, formerly known as Garena, which was valued at $3.75 billion after a March 2016 funding round. The company, which also provides online gaming services, raised $550 million in May for an undisclosed valuation. The company counts Indonesia, Taiwan, Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore as its key markets.

SeaTown Holdings, a subsidiary of Singapore state investor Temasek Holdings, and Malaysian state investor Khazanah Nasional Bhd are among its investors.

Southeast Asia is becoming a new battleground for e-commerce and financial technology companies that are hoping to grab a piece of the market of 600 million people where only a fraction of total retail sales are currently conducted online.

Consultancy Frost and Sullivan forecasts online product sales in Southeast Asia to grow to $71 billion by 2021 from $16 billion in 2016.