Sea’s financial services arm Monee should consider an IPO on SGX

[SINGAPORE] As New York Stock Exchange (NYSE)-listed Sea weighs the pros and cons of a listing for its financial services arm Monee, it could consider a venue closer to home, such as the Singapore Exchange (SGX).

In a memo to employees on the ninth anniversary of Sea’s initial public offering on Oct 20, CEO Forrest Li revealed that the company “may ring the bell again”, citing Monee’s potential as a public company.

“Going public could give it the resources and the room to go further and faster than it can today,” he said.

Monee runs the payment services and loans on Sea’s e-commerce platform Shopee and gaming platform Garena. The financial services arm also runs the e-wallet ShopeePay and buy-now-pay-later product SPayLater.

Sea’s digital banks also sit under Monee, including MariBank Singapore, MariBank Philippines and SeaBank Indonesia.

Monee’s financials have been improving, with revenue rising from US$882.8 million in the second quarter of 2025 to US$1.4 billion in Q2 2026. It accounted for about 17.9 per cent of Sea’s total revenue of US$7.8 billion in Q2 2026.

Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation also rose from US$255.3 million in Q2 2025 to US$288 million in Q2 2026.

Its loan book grew 62.5 per cent to US$11.1 billion in Q2 2026 from Q2 2025.

In Sea’s Q2 briefing, Li said that the Philippines had become the fifth and latest market to have a loan book exceeding US$1 billion, after Brazil and Thailand, among others.

Banks’ outperformance

Monee is shaping up to be a formidable financial services player and operates in a sector that has seen much interest from investors on SGX.

Have a look at the three SGX-listed banks, DBS, OCBC and UOB.

Their share prices have climbed between 16.8 per cent and 45.3 per cent from Jan 1 to Oct 26. By market capitalisation, they make up the bulk of the Straits Times Index.

Monee could be worth about US$18 billion to US$22 billion, said Sachin Mittal, an analyst at DBS Group Research. While that is still much lower than Singapore’s No 3 bank, UOB, by market capitalisation, Monee is not such a small player either.

Its digital banks have been growing. MariBank Singapore, which includes MariBank Philippines as at the 2025 financial year, reported a spike in 2025 net interest income (NII) to S$166 million from S$22.2 million in 2024.

Even without MariBank Philippines’ contribution, MariBank Singapore’s 2025 NII grew to S$30 million.

Losses also narrowed from S$51.3 million in 2024 to S$46.6 million in 2025. Without MariBank Philippines’ contribution, losses widened to S$55.6 million.

Monee is widely diversified across South-east Asia, with operations in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines. It also has a presence in Taiwan and Brazil.

SGX has reduced lot sizes from 100 units to 10 units for counters over S$10, and to one unit for counters above S$100. This move may help Monee tap retail investor interest.

Coupled with the Equity Market Development Programme’s (EQDP) fund managers looking for attractive new listings, Monee should have no trouble with fundraising on SGX.

But what if Sea is looking for a US listing for Monee to match its NYSE listing? SGX has an answer to that as well.

Dual listing

The Global Listing Board, a dual-listing bridge between SGX and Nasdaq, has gone live. It can provide Monee with US exposure via Nasdaq while still allowing it to ride the wave of interest in financial services on SGX.

This can help to allay doubts about the Singapore market not valuing growth companies fairly, with the Nasdaq being home to multiple peers in the same field, such as PayPal and Affirm.

Monee’s operations in Brazil would also be geographically closer to the US market, which could help the company build familiarity among US investors looking at the South American markets.

A dual listing could offer it the best of both worlds, enabling it to capture investors from multiple geographic regions.

This way, Monee would be able to access investors who understand the dynamics of financial services in emerging markets within South-east Asia. At the same time, US investors would value Monee as a growth counter.

These factors should make Sea seriously consider a listing on SGX.