Investment Lifecycle and Strategies
CASE STUDY #2: SEA LTD (NYSE: SE)
WE PURCHASED SEA IN 2018, AT AN INITIAL PRICE OF ~ $13.
Thesis: Sea Ltd was just beginning to grow its ecommerce platform, Shopee, at the time of our purchase in 2018. The
market was ascribing a negative value to the Shopee business at the time, believing that it was a waste of cash flow provided
by the Garena gaming business. Contrary to this, we saw a tremendous value a managed ecommerce marketplace
provided in Southeast Asia, versus the informal social media channels most products were still sold through at the time.
We thought if Shopee was successful and could eventually reach profitability, it would be worth many multiples of the
~$4BN market value at the time.
Shopee eventually overtook their competitors, to become the dominant ecommerce marketplace (~60% market share) in
SE Asia. Margins improved from negative gross margins at the time of purchase, to break-even profitability today.
We began trimming our position in 2020, as share prices had appreciated over the previous two years. However, we still
retain a large portion of our position, given what we believe to be "multi-bagger" upside to share prices over the next
decade as Shopee cements its market position and their economics inflect toward their structural margins.
We have publicly discussed Sea Ltd in our previous investor communications here: Sea Ltd Writeup, Q1 2019 Letter,
04 2019 Letter, Q4 2020 Letter, O4 2021 Letter
Share Price
$600.0
$500.0
$400.0
$300.0
$200.0
$100.0
$13.8
$0.0
$40.2
SEA LTD
$154.0
$318.7
$119.8
3Q2018 1Q2019 3Q2019 1Q2020 3Q2020 1Q2021 3Q2021 1Q2022
Shares Owned
Share Price
% of Total NAV
HAYDEN CAPITAL 20View entire presentation