WITH good results come greater expectations. New York-listed Sea last week wowed the market with its first-ever quarterly profit, and forecasts of its FY2023 performance have now ramped up significantly.

Keeping up the momentum will be the key challenge for the company going forward, especially as in the face of the dampened profitability of its gaming business Garena and potential costs as it expands its digital banking venture.

On Mar 7, the company reported US$422.8 million in net profit for the fourth quarter ended Dec 31. Excluding one-off items, its core earnings for the quarter stood at US$270.8 million, a sharp turnaround from the US$616.3 million loss in the year-ago period. Revenue grew 7.1 per cent to US$3.5 billion.