SEA LTD. aims to raise $6.3 billion in the largest equity offering of the year, a deal that will propel a global expansion and acquisitions for Southeast Asia’s largest company.

The online gaming and e-commerce firm backed by Tencent Holdings Ltd. is offering 11 million shares, a stake worth about $3.8 billion at Wednesday’s close. It also intends to issue $2.5 billion of equity-linked debt. Sea, which has risen more than 70% this year, fell in post-marketing trading in New York.

The region’s most valuable company has rapidly expanded its market share in e-commerce and gaming during the pandemic, riding hit titles like shooter game Free Fire and its Shopee online shopping app. Its founder Forrest Li became Singapore’s richest person in August after shares of his company surged.

“Sea is going for a market expansion, especially in new businesses such as e-commerce in Latin America and food delivery in Southeast Asia,” said Sachin Mittal, an analyst with DBS Group Holdings Ltd. “Competition is intensifying and gaining market share is of utmost importance.”

The 11 million shares alone that Sea is offering will be the biggest equity sale since Chinese e-commerce operator Pinduoduo, Inc. raised $4.1 billion on Nov. 18, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Including the convertible bonds, the overall deal will be the biggest equity raise since T-Mobile US, Inc.’s in June 2020.

The deal, offered via Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan and BofA, arrives at a time of resurgence in cross-border issuance from Asia. Nio, Inc. on Tuesday announced plans to raise up to $2 billion in what would be the biggest US offering by a company based in China since Didi Global, Inc.

Sea’s latest capital-raising follows a $2.6-billion stock sale in December and a $1.35-billion deal in 2019. It will deploy the latest chunk of capital toward “business expansion and other general corporate purposes, including potential strategic investments and acquisitions,” the company said in a statement.

Sea in August raised its annual forecasts for its two main business, underscoring its confidence in an expanding international business that’s gaining momentum beyond its home region.

The stock has risen more than eightfold since the beginning of 2020 as Sea invests cash generated from popular mobile battle royale game Free Fire to establish itself as a leader in e-commerce in Southeast Asia. At the same time, it has expanded its online shopping business in Brazil as part of a strategy to become a global player, increasing competition with Latin American e-commerce giant MercadoLibre, Inc.

In its home region, Sea remains locked in a fierce battle with GoTo and Grab Holdings, Inc., all bolstering their e-commerce and fintech offerings in one of the fastest-growing internet markets on the planet. Southeast Asia’s online spending is set to triple to more than $300 billion by 2025, research from Google and its partners shows.

It’s now turning to fintech for further growth beyond gaming and e-commerce, while also expanding beyond the region. It won a digital-banking license in Singapore in December and acquired Indonesia’s PT Bank Kesejahteraan Ekonomi, better known as Bank BKE, people familiar with the matter said in January. — Bloomberg

THE GLOBAL program providing COVID-19 vaccines to poor countries is on course to fall nearly 30% short of its previous goal of two billion shots this year, the international organizations running it said on Wednesday.

The head of the GAVI Vaccine Alliance, which sponsors the COVAX program along with the World Health Organization, Unicef and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), pleaded with rich countries to share more doses.

In a joint statement, the organizations blamed the decision to cut COVAX’s target to 1.425 billion doses on a range of factors including export restrictions on the Serum Institute of India (SII), a major supplier.

Manufacturing problems at Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca as well as delays in the regulatory review of shots developed by US biotech firm Novavax and China’s Clover Biopharmaceuticals also hurt supplies, they said.

“This is of course bad for the whole world as we’ve seen the dreadful consequences that take hold when the virus is left to roam unchecked,” Gavi Chief Executive Officer Seth Berkley told journalists in a briefing.

“We cannot afford further delays” while groups such as healthcare workers and the elderly still need protection in lower-income nations, he added.

The joint statement said the two billion dose milestone for COVAX was now projected to be hit in the first quarter of 2022.

More than 221 million people have been reported to be infected by the coronavirus globally and 4.76 million have died, according to a Reuters tally.

Mr. Berkley said countries that had met their domestic needs should forfeit further volumes they had secured. Some rich countries are planning to administer third shots, over concerns that protection from the standard two-shot regimen is waning, but Mr. Berkley said there was no scientific validation for the need for such widespread booster shots.

“If we had unlimited supplies of vaccines, we often use vaccines off label, we can use them in experimental fashions, but I think right now we need to stick to where they’re needed,” he added. — Reuters