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MercadoLibre, Inc. Reports Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2016 Financial Results

February 23, 2017 4:01 PM

51.6 million Sold Items, up 40.2%, 42.5 million Total Payment Transactions, up 67.1%

Net Revenues of $256.3 million, growing 41.8% in USD, 68.0% on an FX neutral basis

Net Income of $51.3 million, resulting in EPS of $1.16.

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina, Feb. 23, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- MercadoLibre, Inc. (Nasdaq: MELI) (http://www.mercadolibre.com), Latin America's leading e-commerce technology company, today reported financial results for the fourth quarter and fiscal year ended December 31, 2016.

Pedro Arnt, Chief Financial Officer of MercadoLibre, Inc., commented, Last year was one of our most significant in terms of the tangible results of the quality work and level of execution that the entire team at MELI delivered. The scope of control over the customer experience that we are now able to deliver is something that would have been hard for us to anticipate five years ago. This end to end servicing of each e-commerce transaction that we now offer puts us in an excellent position to focus on delivering a best in class user experience to our buyers and sellers, which is the driving principle behind everything we do.”

Full Year 2016 Operational & Financial Highlights

Fourth Quarter 2016 Business Highlights

Fourth Quarter 2016 Financial Highlights

(*) See note on “Non-GAAP Financial Measures”

The following table summarizes certain key performance metrics for the three months ended December 31, 2016 and 2015.

Three months ended Dec 31, (in MM)
Q4'15Q4'16%YoY%YoY LC
Number of Confirmed Registered Users at end of period 144.6 174.220.4%
Number of Confirmed Registered Users During Period 6.3 7.925.6%
Gross merchandise volume $2,006.1$2,222.110.8%48.3%
Number of successful items sold 368 51.640.2%
Total payment volume $1,557.4$2,446.857.5%83.8%
Total payment volume on marketplace $1,109.4$1,759.658.6%
Total payment transactions 25.4 42.567.1%
Number of successful items shipped 14.8 25.974.9%
Unique Buyers 10.7 13.222.8%
Unique Sellers 3.3 3.918.2%

Table of Year-on-Year Local Currency Revenue Growth Rates by Quarter

YoY Growth rates
Consolidated Net Revenues
Q4'15Q1'16Q2'16Q3'16Q4'16
Brazil42%54%61%62%64%
Argentina79%71%89%68%60%
Mexico29%42%35%36%29%
Venezuela272%249%185%152%199%
Others14%19%30%33%42%
Total69%75%73%66%68%

Table of Year-on-Year USD Revenue Growth Rates by Quarter

YoY Growth rates
Consolidated Net Revenues
Q4'15Q1'16Q2'16Q3'16Q4'16
Brazil-6%13%41%76%92%
Argentina52%2%19%4%4%
Mexico6%18%15%19%8%
Venezuela-7%-13%31%-22%-10%
Others-8%-1%14%33%46%
Total12%6%29%37%42%

Conference Call and Webcast

The Company will host a conference call and audio webcast on February 23, 2017 at 4:30 p.m. Eastern Time. The conference call may be accessed by dialing +(970) 315-0420 or +(877) 303-7209 (Conference ID 65991410) and requesting inclusion in the call for Mercado Libre. The live conference call can be accessed via audio webcast at the investor relations section of the Company's website, at http://investor.mercadolibre.com. An archive of the webcast will be available for one week following the conclusion of the conference call.

Definition of Selected Operational Metrics

Blended tax rate – Defined as income and asset tax expense as a percentage of income before income and assets tax.

Free Cash Flow – Defined as cash flows from operating activities less payment and advances for the acquisition of property, equipment, intangible assets net of financial liabilities and payment for acquired business net of cash acquired.

Foreign Exchange (“FX”) Neutral – Calculated by using the average monthly exchange rate of each month of 2015 and applying it to the corresponding months in the current year, so as to calculate what the results would have been had exchange rates remained constant. Intercompany allocations are excluded from this calculation. These calculations do not include any other macroeconomic effect such as local currency inflation effects or any price adjustment to compensate local currency inflation or devaluations.

Gross merchandise volume – Measure of the total U.S. dollar sum of all transactions completed through the Mercado Libre Marketplace, excluding motor vehicles, vessels, aircraft, real estate, and services.

Total payment transactions – Measure of the number of all transactions completed using MercadoPago.

Total volume of payments on marketplace - Measure of the total U.S. dollar sum of all marketplace transactions paid for using MercadoPago, excluding shipping and financing fees.

Total payment volume – Measure of total U.S. dollar sum of all transactions paid for using MercadoPago.

Items sold – Measure of the number of items sold/purchased through the Mercado Libre Marketplace.

Items shipped- Measure of the number of items that were shipped through our shipping service.

Local Currency Growth Rates – Refer to FX Neutral definition

Net income margin – Defined as net income as a percentage of net revenues.

New confirmed registered users – Measure of the number of new users who have registered on the Mercado Libre platform (including Mercado Pago) and confirmed their registration. Since July’12, registration and confirmation take place in the same step of the registration flow.

Operating margin – Defined as income from operations as a percentage of net revenues.

Total confirmed registered users – Measure of the cumulative number of users who have registered on the Mercado Libre platform (including Mercado Pago) and confirmed their registration. Since July ’12, registration and confirmation take place in the same step of the registration flow.

Unique Buyers – New or existing buyers with at least one purchase made in the period.

Unique Sellers – New or existing sellers with at least one sale made in the period.

About Mercado Libre

Founded in 1999, Mercado Libre is Latin America's leading e-commerce technology company. Through its primary platforms, Mercado Libre.com and Mercado Pago.com, it provides solutions to individuals and companies buying, selling, advertising, and paying for goods and services online.

Mercado Libre.com serves millions of users and creates a market for a wide variety of goods and services in an easy, safe and efficient way. The site is among the top 50 in the world in terms of page views and is the leading retail platform in unique visitors in the major countries in which it operates according to metrics provided by comScore Networks. The Company is listed on NASDAQ (Nasdaq: MELI) following its initial public offering in 2007.

For more information about the Company visit: http://investor.mercadolibre.com.

The Mercado Libre, Inc. logo is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=4193

Consolidated balance sheets(In thousands of U.S. dollars, except par value)

December 31, December 31,
2016 2015
Assets
Current assets:
Cash and cash equivalents$234,140 $166,881
Short-term investments 253,321 202,112
Accounts receivable, net 25,435 28,428
Credit cards receivable, net 307,904 131,946
Loans receivable, net 6,283
Prepaid expenses 15,060 6,007
Inventory 1,103 222
Other assets 26,215 9,577
Total current assets 869,461 545,173
Non-current assets:
Long-term investments 153,803 187,621
Property and equipment, net 124,261 81,633
Goodwill 91,797 86,545
Intangible assets, net 26,277 28,991
Deferred tax assets 45,017 29,688
Other assets 56,819 43,955
Total non-current assets 497,974 458,433
Total assets$1,367,435 $1,003,606
Liabilities and Equity
Current liabilities:
Accounts payable and accrued expenses$105,106 $62,038
Funds payable to customers 370,693 203,247
Salaries and social security payable 48,898 32,918
Taxes payable 27,338 10,092
Loans payable and other financial liabilities 11,583 1,965
Other liabilities 6,359 7,667
Dividends payable 6,624 4,548
Total current liabilities 576,601 322,475
Non-current liabilities:
Salaries and social security payable 16,173 10,422
Loans payable and other financial liabilities 301,940 294,342
Deferred tax liabilities 34,059 27,049
Other liabilities 9,808 9,860
Total non-current liabilities 361,980 341,673
Total liabilities$938,581 $664,148
Equity:
Common stock, $0.001 par value, 110,000,000 shares authorized,
44,157,364 and 44,156,854 shares issued and outstanding at December 31,
2016 and December 31, 2015, respectively$44 $44
Additional paid-in capital 137,982 137,923
Retained earnings 550,641 440,770
Accumulated other comprehensive loss (259,813) (239,279)
Total Equity 428,854 339,458
Total Liabilities and Equity$1,367,435 $1,003,606

Consolidated statements of cash flows(In thousands of U.S. dollars, except par value)

Year Ended December 31,
2016 2015 2014
Cash flows from operations:
Net income attributable to MercadoLibre, Inc. Shareholders $136,366 $105,789 $72,581
Adjustments to reconcile net income to net cash provided by operating activities:
Net income attributable to Redeemable Noncontrolling Interest 72
Unrealized Devaluation Loss, net 4,967 14,717 13,808
Impairment of Long-Lived Assets 13,717 16,226 49,496
Depreciation and amortization 29,022 23,209 16,947
Accrued interest (17,794) (12,783) (9,029)
Non cash interest and convertible bonds amortization of debt discount and amortization of debt issuance costs 9,837 17,272 7,874
LTRP accrued compensation 22,983 10,213 11,852
Deferred income taxes (6,188) 4,354 (20,237)
Changes in assets and liabilities:
Accounts receivable (15,428) (36,476) (36,120)
Credit cards receivable (180,592) (109,139) (45,521)
Prepaid expenses (9,133) (3,907) (157)
Inventory (787) (237)
Other assets (24,425) (2,340) (5,982)
Accounts payable and accrued expenses 47,980 63,668 68,780
Funds payable to customers 164,060 119,353 61,072
Other liabilities (45) 1,765 1,675
Interest received from investments 15,719 9,686 9,682
Net cash provided by operating activities 190,259 221,370 196,793
Cash flows from investing activities:
Purchase of investments (3,501,283) (1,949,769) (2,577,130)
Proceeds from sale and maturity of investments 3,508,293 1,875,516 2,330,836
Payment for acquired businesses, net of cash acquired (7,284) (45,009) (36,814)
Payment of remaining amount from business acquisition (4,000)
Purchases of intangible assets (431) (1,746) (857)
Changes in principal loans receivable, net (6,599)
Advance for property and equipment (8,412) (23,380)
Purchases of property and equipment (68,527) (39,150) (34,426)
Net cash used in investing activities (84,243) (183,538) (322,391)
Cash flows from financing activities:
Funds received from the issuance of convertible notes 330,000
Transaction costs from the issuance of convertible notes (8,084)
Purchase of convertible note capped call (19,668)
Proceeds from loans payable and other financial liabilities 11,435 5,033
Payments on loans payable and other financing (6,684) (9,059) (7,704)
Dividends paid (24,419) (20,974) (28,303)
Repurchase of Common Stock (2,714) (1,944)
Net cash (used in) provided by financing activities (19,668) (27,714) 264,297
Effect of exchange rate changes on cash and cash equivalents (19,089) (66,381) (55,840)
Net increase (decrease) in cash and cash equivalents 67,259 (56,263) 82,859
Cash and cash equivalents, beginning of the year 166,881 223,144 140,285
Cash and cash equivalents, end of the year $234,140 $166,881 $223,144

Consolidated statements of income(In thousands of U.S. dollars, except for share data)

Year Ended December 31, Three Months Ended December 31,
2016 2015 2014 2016 2015
Net revenues $844,396 $651,790 $556,536 $256,275 $180,732
Cost of net revenues (307,538) (214,994) (158,978) (93,546) (63,162)
Gross profit 536,858 436,796 397,558 162,729 117,570
Operating expenses:
Product and technology development (98,479) (76,423) (53,600) (26,256) (22,497)
Sales and marketing (156,296) (128,609) (111,627) (48,554) (42,167)
General and administrative (87,310) (76,342) (62,364) (23,250) (19,215)
Impairment of Long-Lived Assets (13,717) (16,226) (49,496)
Total operating expenses (355,802) (297,600) (277,087) (98,060) (83,879)
Income from operations 181,056 139,196 120,471 64,669 33,691
Other income (expenses):
Interest income and other financial gains 35,442 20,561 15,336 10,250 5,792
Interest expense and other financial losses (25,605) (20,391) (11,659) (6,799) (4,229)
Foreign currency (losses) gains (5,565) 11,125 (2,352) (501) 17,772
Net income before income tax expense 185,328 150,491 121,796 67,619 53,026
Income tax expense (48,962) (44,702) (49,143) (16,272) (14,062)
Net income $136,366 $105,789 $72,653 $51,347 $38,964
Less: Net Income attributable to Redeemable Noncontrolling Interest 72
Net income attributable to MercadoLibre, Inc. shareholders $136,366 $105,789 $72,581 $51,347 $38,964

Year Ended December 31, Three Months Ended December 31,
2016 2015 2014 2015 2015
Basic EPS
Basic net income attributable to MercadoLibre, Inc.
Shareholders per common share $3.09 $2.40 $1.63 $1.16 $0.88
Weighted average of outstanding common shares 44,157,251 44,155,680 44,153,884 44,157,355 44,156,800
Diluted EPS
Diluted net income attributable to MercadoLibre, Inc.
Shareholders per common share $3.09 $2.40 $1.63 $1.16 $0.88
Weighted average of outstanding common shares 44,157,251 44,155,680 44,153,884 44,157,355 44,156,800
Cash Dividends declared per common share 0.600 0.412 0.664 0.150 0.103

Financial results of reporting segments

Year Ended December 31, 2016
Brazil Argentina Mexico Venezuela Other Countries Total
(In thousands)
Net revenues $455,024 $262,252 $46,332 $37,185 $43,603 $844,396
Direct costs (270,922) (152,103) (40,951) (17,732) (31,549) (513,257)
Impairment of Long-lived Assets - - - (13,717) - (13,717)
Direct contribution 184,102 110,149 5,381 5,736 12,054 317,422
Operating expenses and indirect costs of net revenues (136,366)
Income from operations 181,056
Other income (expenses):
Interest income and other financial gains 35,442
Interest expense and other financial losses (25,605)
Foreign currency losses (5,565)
Net income before income tax expense $185,328

Year Ended December 31, 2015
Brazil Argentina Mexico Venezuela Other Countries Total
(In thousands)
Net revenues $290,602 $245,011 $40,338 $40,475 $35,364 $651,790
Direct costs (180,394) (134,750) (31,282) (15,287) (24,605) (386,318)
Impairment of Long-lived Assets - - - (16,226) - (16,226)
Direct contribution 110,208 110,261 9,056 8,962 10,759 249,246
Operating expenses and indirect costs of net revenues (110,050)
Income from operations 139,196
Other income (expenses):
Interest income and other financial gains 20,561
Interest expense and other financial losses (20,391)
Foreign currency gain 11,125
Net income before income tax expense $150,491

Three Months December 31, 2016
Brazil Argentina Mexico Venezuela Other Countries Total
(In thousands)
Net revenues $143,597 $76,367 $11,957 $10,734 $13,620 $256,275
Direct costs (82,150) (46,886) (11,947) (5,041) (10,268) (156,292)
Impairment of Long-lived Assets - - - - - -
Direct contribution 61,447 29,481 10 5,693 3,352 99,983
Operating expenses and indirect costs of net revenues (35,311)
Income from operations 64,672
Other income (expenses):
Interest income and other financial gains 10,250
Interest expense and other financial losses (6,798)
Foreign currency gain (503)
Net income before income tax expense $67,621



Three Months December 31, 2015
Brazil Argentina Mexico Venezuela Other Countries Total
(In thousands)
Net revenues $74,951 $73,515 $11,030 $11,946 $9,290 $180,732
Direct costs (52,988) (42,203) (10,107) (4,787) (8,178) (118,263)
Impairment of Long-lived Assets - - - - - -
Direct contribution 21,963 31,312 923 7,159 1,112 62,469
Operating expenses and indirect costs of net revenues (28,777)
Income from operations 33,692
Other income (expenses):
Interest income and other financial gains 5,793
Interest expense and other financial losses (4,229)
Foreign currency gain 17,772
Net income before income tax expense $53,028

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

To supplement our condensed consolidated financial statements presented in accordance with U,S, GAAP, we use free cash flows and foreign exchange (“FX”) neutral measures as non-GAAP measures.

These non-GAAP measures should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for measures of performance prepared in accordance with U,S, GAAP and may be different from non-GAAP measures used by other companies, In addition, these non-GAAP measures are not based on any comprehensive set of accounting rules or principles, Non-GAAP measures have limitations in that they do not reflect all of the amounts associated with our results of operations as determined in accordance with U,S, GAAP, These non-GAAP financial measures should only be used to evaluate our results of operations in conjunction with the most comparable U,S, GAAP financial measures.

Reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial measures to the most comparable U,S, GAAP financial measures can be found in the tables included in this quarterly report.

Non-GAAP financial measures are provided to enhance investors’ overall understanding of our current financial performance, Specifically, we believe that free cash flow provides useful information to both management and investors by excluding payments for the acquisition of property and equipment, of intangible assets and of businesses net of cash acquired, that may not be indicative of our core operating results, In addition, we report free cash flows to investors because we believe that the inclusion of this measure provides consistency in our financial reporting.

Free cash flow represents cash from operating activities less payment and advances for the acquisition of property and equipment net of financial liabilities, intangible assets and acquired businesses net of cash acquired, We consider free cash flow to be a liquidity measure that provides useful information to management and investors about the amount of cash generated by our operations after the purchases of property and equipment, of intangible assets and of acquired businesses net of cash acquired, A limitation of the utility of free cash flow as a measure of financial performance is that it does not represent the total increase or decrease in our cash balance for the period.

The following table shows a reconciliation of Operating Cash Flows to Free Cash Flows:

Three-month Periods Ended
December 31,
(In millions) 2016 2015
Net Cash provided by Operating Activities$42.6 $110.1
Advance for property and equipment (2.3) (5.6)
Purchase of intangible assets (0.4) (0.2)
Purchase of property and equipment (13.0) (20.1)
Free cash flow 26.9 84.2

(*) The table above may not total due to rounding.

The Company that reconciliation of FX neutral measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measure provides investors an overall understanding of our current financial performance and its prospects for the future, Specifically, we believe these non-GAAP measures provide useful information to both management and investors by excluding the foreign currency exchange rate impact that may not be indicative of our core operating results and business outlook.

The FX neutral measures were calculated by using the average monthly exchange rates for each month during 2015 and applying them to the corresponding months in 2016, so as to calculate what our results would have been had exchange rates remained stable from one year to the next, The table below excludes intercompany allocation FX effects, Finally, these measures do not include any other macroeconomic effect such as local currency inflation effects, the impact on impairment calculations or any price adjustment to compensate local currency inflation or devaluations.

The following table sets forth the FX neutral measures related to our reported results of the operations for the three months periods ended December 31, 2016 and 2015:

Three-months Periods Ended December 31, (*)
As reported FX Neutral Measures
(In millions, except percentages) 2016 2015 Percentage Change 2016 2015 Percentage Change
Net revenues $256.3 $180.7 41.8% $304.1 $180.7 68.3%
Cost of net revenues (93.5) (63.2) 47.9% (108.7) (63.2) 72.2%
Gross profit 162.7 117.6 38.4% 195.4 117.6 66.2%
Operating expenses: (98.1) (83.9) 16.9% (120.9) (83.9) 44.1%
Total operating expenses (98.1) (83.9) 16.9% (120.9) (83.9) 44.1%
Income from operations 64.7 33.7 91.8% 74.5 33.7 121.0%

(*) The table above may not total due to rounding.

CONTACT:
MercadoLibre, Inc.
Investor Relations
[email protected]
http://investor.mercadolibre.com

Source: MercadoLibre, Inc.

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