Billionaire Howard Marks is one of the most respected value investors alive. He co-founded Oaktree Capital and is famous for his investor memos, the ones Warren Buffett says he reads first.His fund recently disclosed a new position in Sea Limited (NYSE:SE) worth about $60.9 million.Sea is a Southeast Asian tech company. It runs an online shopping platform, a fintech arm, and a video game business.
The stock is down about 30% over the past year. Why is billionaire Marks buying? Sea's Shopee is an online shopping platform in Southeast Asia, and it's also growing fast in Brazil.
Sea makes money on Shopee by taking a cut of each sale, charging sellers for ads, and running the delivery network. Monee is the fintech arm. It lends money to shoppers and small businesses.
Garena is the games business. It makes money selling in-game items and upgrades. Howard Marks of Oaktree CapitalThe Latest EarningsSea revenue rose 48% year over year and beat Wall Street estimates.Shopee revenue rose 49%.
The value of goods sold on the platform grew 28%, and its high-margin ad business grew more than 70%. Management now expects Shopee to clear $1 billion in adjusted profit for the full year, its biggest profitability milestone yet.Monee revenue rose 59%. Its loan book grew about 62%, and bad loans stayed low at 1% of the total.
Active credit users grew 34% to more than 40 million.Garena bookings rose 15%, and its profit grew 17%.However, earnings per share came in below what analysts wanted, even as revenue beat. The company is spending to grow. It also kept buying back its own stock during the quarter.
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