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[SINGAPORE] Sea Ltd soared on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) as investors excited by its second-quarter earnings jump poured into the counter.

It had gained more than US$30 at 11.22 am New York time on Tuesday (Aug 12), before closing 18.9 per cent or US$27.89 higher at US$174.12.

Its shares are up 64.1 per cent in the year to date and are worth five times their low of US$34.82 at the start of 2024.

The company reported a 418.3 per cent increase in its Q2 earnings to US$414.2 million, from US$79.9 million in the year-ago period.

It has a market capitalisation greater than US$100 billion, with a valuation of US$103.1 billion. This is the first time two Singapore companies have been simultaneously north of the milestone. The other is DBS, with a market capitalisation of US$112.7 billion.

The jump in earnings was driven by 38.2 per cent revenue growth to US$5.3 billion for the quarter, largely due to the performance of Sea’s e-commerce arm Shopee and digital financial services arm Monee.

Shopee is the largest e-commerce platform in South-east Asia, with operations also in Taiwan and Brazil.

Revenue for Shopee grew 33.6 per cent, while Monee sales rose 70 per cent in Q2 to US$882.8 million and bookings at gaming division Garena increased 23.2 per cent.

Sea’s digital financial services arm Monee had total loans outstanding of US$6.9 billion.

The earnings report also highlighted the surge in “off-Shopee loans” – cash loans and buy-now-pay-later arrangements that originated outside the Shopee platform. With the ratio of non-performing loans that are past due by more than 90 days at just 1 per cent, Monee’s operational discipline and risk control capabilities are on full display, according to Momentum Works.

Malaysia joined Indonesia and Thailand as the third Monee market with a loanbook above US$1 billion.

Sea chief executive Forrest Li said in a statement that the company will continue to prioritise growth to maximise its long-term profitability.