Pablo E. Laviola's  Instablog

MercadoLibre is the largest online trading platform in Latin America, this ex (EBAY) partner is the market leader in e-commerce in each of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela. Additionally, this company launched online trading platforms in Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic and Panama. Operates in a market of over 550 million people and a region with one of the world’s fastest-growing Internet penetration rates. 

 

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On Thursday 12th, Mr. Marcos Galperin, CEO & founder of (MELI) signed in Buenos Aires an agreement with Argentina´s Minister of Industry Debora Giorgi, Vice President of Argentina Amado Boudou also was present in the act. 

 

Mainly, it is a collaboration agreement and cooperation for SMEs to enter the e-commerce.  MercadoLibre currently offers this service to 20,000 SMEs through MercadoShops paid service. It is not yet defined the mechanism and requirements to be met by firms that want free access to this platform.  

 

Professional platform service actually costs around USD 25 per month but with this free basic plan a lot of new buyers and sellers will be using MELI´s platform. 

 

This will have long term impact on stock movement but is a good new to consider because Argentina´s governors are controlling as much companies and market behavior as they can, so this deal is absolutely positive in the country where (MELI) is headqueartered and one of the major markets in terms of profit and users.

 

For mid and long-term investors I suggest considering (MELI) under $95. Last analysis from  RBC Capital Mkts was an outperform and they increased target price from $95 to $100 on November 3rd. For shorter terms investors I suggest buying on a $80 pullback.

(MELI) is currently trading at P/E of 53.86, Forward P/E of 37.22, Market Cap is almost 4B and the dividend -paid since 2011- is very small (0,37%).