MercadoLibre, the leading company in e-commerce technology in Latin America. It has announced the closing of its IPO of approximately 1,150 million dollars in common shares at a price of 480 dollars per share. Which includes the full exercise of the purchase option of the subscribers 150 million additional shares of common shares.
The company has also completed the closing of the $ 750 million PayPal investment. Pending the closing of its previously announced offer of $ 100 million Preferred Shares for Dragoneer. Resulting in a total offer of $ 2,000 million for Free market.
Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley are acting as joint book runners for the public offering.
“In the last 20 years, we have invested heavily in the development of electronic commerce and the FinTech ecosystem in Latin America. We are very pleased to welcome these investments that will allow us to significantly accelerate our growth. We hope to accelerate our leadership in e-commerce and payments and foster financial inclusion in Latin America as a result of our partnership with a global leader in the industry such as PayPal,” said Marcos Galperin, CEO of MercadoLibre.
The company intends to expand its e-commerce platform
The company intends to use the revenues to continue expanding its e-commerce platform. Strengthen its logistics infrastructure and invest in solutions that further consolidate the company’s position as a powerful provider of technology solutions and end to end inclusive financial payments.
“Digital commerce in Latin America is experiencing tremendous growth and MercadoLibre is well positioned for continued leadership. We have been impressed by the digital commerce and payment ecosystem that Marcos and his team have built. We see great opportunities to integrate our respective capabilities to create unique and valuable payment experiences for our 500 million customers throughout the region and the rest of the world,” said Dan Schulman, President and CEO of PayPal.
“Through its investments in FinTech, logistics and customer experience, MercadoLibre is consolidating its leading market position in electronic commerce and digital payments throughout Latin America, and we believe we are witnessing a significant turning point in the region. We have known Marcos and his team for more than a decade and we are delighted to partner with them during this period of high growth and transformation,” said Marc Stad, Founder and Managing Partner of the Dragoneer investment group.
In 2018 MercadoLibre sold more than 334 million items, generating more than 12,000 million dollars of gross merchandise volume. Payment transactions at MercadoPago, its payments business unit, increased 70% during 2018, totaling 389 million transactions and 18,000 million dollars in payments.
Also published on Medium.