$SE Looking at Sea's latest quarterly results, one thing that stands out is just how quickly all three of its core businesses continue to grow. Shopee, Monee and Garena delivered YoY revenue growth of 48.2%, 58.9% and 33.5%, respectively, numbers that are particularly impressive considering the scale these businesses have already reached. However, what is equally interesting is that Adj. EBITDA growth has been substantially slower, coming in at 12.2%, 12.8% and 16.7%, respectively. At first glance, this might appear concerning. After all, we would ideally want to see profitability growing faster than revenue as these businesses scale. Instead, the opposite is happening, suggesting that Sea is currently experiencing negative operating leverage. But I think it is important to distinguish between a business that is struggling to grow profitably and one that is deliberately re-investing to accelerate growth. For Shopee, management continues to invest in initiatives such as logistics, buyer incentives and customer engagement to strengthen its competitive position. Monee, meanwhile, is expanding its lending operations aggressively, which introduces additional funding requirements and credit-related expenses. Both businesses are pursuing opportunities that could potentially deliver considerably greater earnings power over time. Of course, the question is whether these investments will ultimately generate attractive returns. There is no guarantee that today's elevated expenditure will translate into higher margins tomorrow, particularly given the competitive nature of e-commerce and the risks associated with consumer lending. However, at 17.5x forward earnings, the market is pricing in little potential growth and investors are paying a relatively modest multiple for a company whose underlying businesses are still expanding at extraordinary rates. If Sea can eventually moderate its reinvestment intensity while sustaining healthy revenue growth, earnings growth could accelerate considerably. And importantly, it would not necessarily require revenue to continue growing at 40-50% annually for this to happen. In my view, that potential transition from revenue-led growth to earnings-led growth is one of the more compelling aspects of Sea's long-term investment thesis.