'Little Tencent' Sea 4Q25 First Take: Results showed the familiar split, with business metrics and revenue broadly beating estimates while profits lagged across segments due to heavier investment. The positives and negatives are clear; details as follows:

1) Excluding the less critical games segment, core e-commerce and fintech growth both came in well above expectations. In games, bookings rose Approx. 24% YoY, decelerated QoQ, and ran slightly below the ~25% growth expected.

2) In the most important e-commerce segment, order volume grew 33% YoY vs. 29% last qtr, materially ahead of estimates. Logistics build-out clearly lifted growth. For the first time, GMV and revenue also beat expectations.

3) In fintech, the key metric—outstanding loan balance—grew 80% YoY, re-accelerating vs. last qtr and far exceeding estimates. Revenue showed similarly strong growth.

4) The core issue was opex overshooting estimates by Approx. $50 mn, mainly dragged by a sharp increase in credit loss provisions. Marketing expense also rose ~34% YoY but was broadly in line.Logistics investment in e-commerce showed up in GPM contracting ~90 bps YoY. Together these factors pressured the key profit metric: Adj. EBITDA of Approx. $790 mn, missing by ~$60 mn (~8%), with all three segments below expectations. $Sea(SE.US)