SINGAPORE - Digital group Sea's entertainment unit, Garena, has inked a binding letter of intent with an affiliate of Tencent Holdings, under which Tencent will grant Garena a right of first refusal to publish Tencent's mobile and PC games in Indonesia, Taiwan, Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore.

The five-year arrangement builds on a long-standing strategic partnership between Tencent and Garena, which already publishes a number of the most successful games from Tencent's portfolio in its core markets. These include Arena of Valor and League of Legends.

The two companies intend to work closely together to identify strategic opportunities to distribute and promote top titles from Tencent's portfolio in the relevant markets, they highlighted in a press release on Monday (Nov 19).

Mr Forrest Li, chairman and group chief executive officer of Sea, said: "Tencent is a global leader in the video games industry, with a portfolio that includes some of the world's most popular and engaging titles. This arrangement further solidifies our strategic partnership with Tencent to bring top quality IP to the large and growing games community in our region."

Sea is headquartered in Singapore, and listed in New York.

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Mr Martin Lau, president of Tencent, added: "Garena operates across some of the fastest-growing markets globally, and has a deep understanding of the dynamics in these regions. Our long-term partnership and collaborations with Garena on key titles have been successful, and we are glad to further deepen our strategic partnership through this arrangement."