Sea Posts Record $8.6 Billion Revenue, Plans $1 Billion Buyback

Sea Limited (NYSE:SE) booked record third-quarter revenue of $8.6 billion and net income of $502 million, up 34% year on year, as its Shopee e-commerce arm and Monee financial services unit carried the quarter. The Singapore-based group also signaled two capital moves: a potential standalone listing of Monee within one to three years, plus an additional $1 billion in share repurchases.

Adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) rose 29% to $931 million, Chief Financial Officer Tony Hou said. The two top executives gave conflicting revenue growth figures on the call: Chairman and CEO Forrest Li cited 43%, while Hou put the increase at 23%.

How fast did Shopee actually grow?

Fast, and profitably. Shopee's gross merchandise value, or GMV (the total value of transactions on the platform), rose 23% to $39.7 billion, while gross orders climbed 26% to 4.5 billion. Segment revenue reached $6.1 billion, and adjusted EBITDA jumped 45% to $269 million — which Li called Shopee's most profitable quarter.

• Advertising revenue grew more than 55%, with paying advertisers up over 35%
• Average monthly active buyers rose 20%; new monthly active buyers grew more than 50%
• ShopeeVIP membership passed 21 million at end-September, up more than 40% from the prior quarter, and members drove close to a quarter of Shopee's GMV

Sea kept spending on delivery, fulfillment, the ShopeeVIP subscription program and video content. President Chris Feng said the video and livestream content business reached a positive contribution margin (revenue minus direct costs) during the quarter, though he cautioned that shared costs make a separate adjusted EBITDA figure for content hard to calculate.

Li reaffirmed full-year guidance: Shopee GMV growth of around 25% and adjusted EBITDA of $1 billion. Feng said future monetization gains would partly support profit growth and partly fund further investment. He added that the company had not yet seen a major slowdown in Shopee's GMV growth — some consumers are simply becoming more value-conscious.

What does the Monee listing plan involve?

Li said Sea hopes to list Monee as a standalone business within one to three years, depending on market conditions, the macroeconomic environment and regulatory requirements. A listing could give Monee a dedicated capital base and more flexibility to grow beyond Shopee, while the two businesses would continue working closely together.

The fintech unit earned its spot on the agenda. Monee's revenue rose 64% to $1.6 billion, and adjusted EBITDA increased 15% to $298 million. Consumer and small-business loan principal outstanding grew 60% to $12.6 billion at end-September, with nearly 44 million active credit users.

Credit quality bears watching: loans more than 90 days past due reached 1.3% of the portfolio. Li attributed the modest rise mainly to changing credit conditions, especially in Thailand and Brazil, plus shifts in market and product mix. Monee has tightened underwriting (the process of assessing borrower risk) and cut credit limits for selected customer segments showing early signs of weakness.

What about Garena and the new cloud venture?

Garena, the gaming business, delivered a quiet but solid quarter. Bookings rose 6% to $890 million, revenue increased 29% to $840 million, and adjusted EBITDA grew 46% to $458 million. Li credited strong bookings growth at Free Fire and sustained momentum for Arena of Valor during its 10th-anniversary celebrations.

Sea is also building Sea Cloud, an early-stage business meant to offer other organizations the AI capabilities Sea built for its own operations. Li said the plan is to focus on software and customer relationships rather than owning large amounts of computing infrastructure, and the venture should have no significant financial impact for now.

Management acknowledged during the Q&A that Sea Cloud has not secured any enterprise contracts yet. Li said the company will evaluate opportunities deal by deal, seeking clear customer commitments and attractive returns, and noted Sea could invest in GPUs or data centers primarily for its own needs, separate from the cloud business.

On capital returns, Li said Sea has nearly completed the $1 billion buyback announced a year ago and plans to repurchase another $1 billion of shares.

The takeaway: record top line, a profitable Shopee, a fast-compounding credit book with a 1.3% NPL ratio — and a fresh $1 billion going back to shareholders.