A signage of Shopee, the e-commerce arm of Southeast Asia's Sea Ltd, is pictured at their office in Singapore, March 5, 2021. REUTERS/Edgar Susaid on Monday it is withdrawing from India's retail market just months after starting operations there, the second pullback this month in an overseas expansion drive, as the loss-making firm faces a weak growth outlook.
After the ban, the market value of New York-listed Sea dropped by $16 billion in a single day, leading some investors to cut holdings in the Singapore-headquartered company.Shopee said in a statement its withdrawal came "in view of global market uncertainties" and that the company would make "the process as smooth as possible".
"Due to a drastic shift in the market sentiment towards growth stocks, all these e-commerce companies are under real pressure to at least break even as soon as possible," said LightStream Research equity analyst Oshadhi Kumarasiri, who publishes on the Smartkarma platform.announced it was selling 14.5 million shares in the group.Shopee's India business began in October 2021 as part of an aggressive international push that saw it expand into Europe.
One person with direct knowledge of the company's thinking said Shopee's decision to exit from India was sparked in part by stricter regulatory scrutiny that saw Sea's gaming app Free Fire banned as part of a crackdown on companies allegedly sending data to servers in China.The person said Shopee had been planning to invest up to $1 billion in India, and that the pullback would hurt Indian logistics firms with whom it had signed lucrative contracts.