SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Latin American e-commerce big MercadoLibre on Thursday reported a $165 million fourth-quarter web revenue, as increased gross sales had been offset by a tax hit, with outcomes flat versus the year-ago interval.
The web revenue was dented by two one-off taxes provisions in Brazil totaling $351 million, and got here in under the $356 million web revenue forecast by analysts polled by LSEG.
MercadoLibre mentioned the provisions shouldn’t have a cloth money affect going ahead.
Senior vp of technique and company improvement Andre Chaves instructed Reuters that the market had been ready for the tax provisions, following native court docket rulings linked to differential Brazilian charges and funds to Argentina.
Excluding the one-offs, MercadoLibre’s web revenue would have been $383 million.
MercadoLibre posted a 42% year-on-year improve in quarterly web revenues to $4.26 billion, bringing revenue from operations – excluding one-offs – to $572 million from $322 million a yr earlier. Gross sales in Brazil, its largest market, rose 35% as measured by gross merchandise quantity.
Analysts had anticipated web revenues of $4.12 billion.
MercadoLibre, nicknamed the Amazon of Latin America, has reported robust progress over the past quarters, however analysts have questioned its means to keep up its tempo of progress with profitability.
The agency mentioned its quarterly working margin with out one-offs stood at 13.4%, in contrast with 18.2% within the third quarter, however resulting from changes it was unclear how comparable the numbers had been.
“Seasonally, we at all times have margin compression within the fourth quarter,” Chaves mentioned, including that MercadoLibre was impacted by elements equivalent to extra promotional spending, notably for Black Friday in Brazil and Buen Fin in Mexico.
Brazil brings in additional than half the corporate’s web revenues, whereas Argentina and Mexico every contribute round a fifth.
On the firm’s fintech arm, Mercado Pago, web revenues grew 34%.
(Reporting by Andre Romani; Enhancing by Leslie Adler)
