Southeast Asian equities traded in US climbed up in premarket trading; Sea Ltd and Grab Holdings rose around 2%.
Sea Ltd is likely to keep dominating the Southeast Asia e-commerce space, thanks to the sizable merchant and customer base commanded by its Shopee platform, UOB Kay Hian analysts say in a note.
Though Shopee could be facing competition from rival platform Lazada, which recently received a capital injection from parent Alibaba, and from Chinese challengers TikTok Shop and Pinduoduo, the analysts see the threat as limited for now. UOB KH expects Shopee to have stable margins on higher transaction-based fees and increased contributions from value-added services. It keeps a buy rating on Sea with a $94.34 target, adding that shares may trade sideways as macro headwinds are countered by positive earnings momentum.