HONG KONG/SINGAPORE, June 1 (Reuters) - Southeast Asian e-commerce and gaming giant Sea Ltd (SE.N) is winding down its investment arm, two people with knowledge of the matter said, amid a cooling investment environment globally as macroeconomic and market uncertainty weigh on valuations.
The arm, Sea Capital, stopped new equity investing in 2022 with leadership moving on in May, while Sea itself is placing less priority on investing given market conditions, one of the people said.
Singapore-based Sea launched Sea Capital in March 2021 with initial capital of $1 billion after buying Hong Kong's Composite Capital Management, founded by former Hillhouse Capital partner David Ma who became Sea Capital's chief investment officer.
One of the people said the decision to wind down Sea Capital was prompted by "less deal activity" resulting in fewer investment opportunities.
Sea Capital had made at least three investments, including in 2021 into collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX.
Persons:
David Ma, Ma, FTX, Kane Wu, Fanny Potkin, Sumeet Chatterjee, Christopher Cushing
Organizations:
Capital, Hong Kong's, Capital Management, Hillhouse, Sea, U.S, Asia's, Thomson
Locations:
HONG KONG, SINGAPORE, Asia, Japan, Singapore, New York, Sea, India, Europe, Hong Kong