Company Briefs: Sea

Sea

Sea, operator of South-east Asia's biggest gaming platform, has raised US$1.35 billion (S$1.8 billion) after increasing the size of a follow-on stock offering, reported Bloomberg.

The Singapore-based Internet company sold 60 million American depositary shares at US$22.50 apiece, or about a 6.5 discount to its last close in New York. An affiliate of Tencent Holdings and a separate firm linked to one of Sea's directors are expected to buy 6.3 million of those shares at those terms, Sea said.

Sea is adding to the US$14.2 billion Asia-Pacific firms have raised through equity offerings in the US over the past 12 months, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Chinese e-commerce operator Pinduoduo priced a US$1.6 billion follow-on offering last month after raising a similar amount in a July initial public offering, the data shows.

Sea, which counts WeChat operator Tencent as a major shareholder, initially envisioned a sale of 50 million shares. Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are acting as joint book runners for the offer, which is expected to close tomorrow.


Frasers Centrepoint Trust

Moody's Investors Service has placed Frasers Centrepoint Trust's (FCT) "Baa1" issuer rating under review for downgrade.

This comes after FCT announced that it had entered into 12 conditional sale-and-purchase agreements to acquire a 17.13 per cent stake in PGIM Real Estate AsiaRetail Fund for $342.5 million. PGIM Fund owns and manages six retail malls and one office property in Singapore, and four retail malls in Malaysia.

Moody's assistant vice-president and analyst Saranga Ranasinghe said: "The rating action reflects the potential weakening of FCT's credit metrics, if the proposed transaction is funded substantially with debt."

Assuming the acquisition is 60 per cent funded by debt, it will increase FCT's total borrowings by around $205.5 million and weaken its leverage to around 7.2x from 6.4x as of December last year, eroding headroom under the downgrade trigger level of 7.5x, Moody's said in a statement.

The aggregate consideration for the proposed transaction is expected to be initially funded through a bridging loan. The bridging loan will be repaid by either a term loan or through a combination of a term loan and equity. The transaction, expected to close next month, is subject to approval from the Bermuda Monetary Authority, PGIM Fund's board of directors and the non-take up of the shares on offer by other existing shareholders, given their right of first refusal.

FCT's rating could be downgraded if it "fails to employ a prudent funding mix that ensures headroom within its 'Baa1' rating", Moody's said.

Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.

A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on March 07, 2019, with the headline Company Briefs: Sea. Subscribe