Cathie Wood, chief executive officer and chief investment officer of ARK Investment Management LLC
Alex Flynn/Bloomberg
Sea Ltd. shares were rebounding Tuesday, after plunging on Monday following reports that India has banned its popular mobile hit “Free Fire”.
The steep slide in Sea (ticker: SE) attracted Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest, which purchased more than 145,000 shares of the Singaporean gaming giant, according to the firm’s daily trading update.
The Ark Next Generation Internet ETF acquired 97,786 of those shares, the update showed.
Sea stock rose 4% in the premarket Tuesday after more than 18% was wiped off its market value on Monday. The stock is down 42.26% so far this year.
India has banned 54 apps, which either have originated in China or have some Chinese connection for being a threat to national security, according to several media reports. The apps are rebranded versions of ones that the Indian government already banned in 2020, which included TikTok and PUBG.
The latest batch of banned apps included Singapore-based Sea Ltd’s Free Fire game, according to Bloomberg which cited people with knowledge of the matter.
“We are aware that Free Fire is currently unavailable in the Google Play and iOS app stores in India and that the game is currently not operable for some users in the country. We are working to address this situation, and we apologize to our users for any inconvenience,” the company said in a statement on its website.
Sea’s largest investor is Chinese gaming giant Tencent which holds more than 18% of the company’s stock.
Sea said it is a Singapore company and committed to protecting its users’ privacy and security in India and globally. “We comply with Indian laws and regulations, and we do not transfer to or store any data of our Indian users in China,” Sea told Reuters.
Sea is already facing pressure in India after trade group the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) complained that its ecommerce arm Shopee was involved in unfair trade practices that hurt offline traders.
Write to Lina Saigol at [email protected]
