MercadoLibre misses third-quarter profit expectations on logistics, credit costs

By Andre Romani

SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Latin American e-commerce giant MercadoLibre on Wednesday posted a near 11% increase in its third-quarter net profit, missing market estimates as logistics and credit costs offfset revenue growth.

MercadoLibre posted a net income of $397 million for the quarter ended in September, while analysts polled by LSEG were expecting a profit of $542 million.

The company, which operates an online marketplace in around 20 countries and runs fintech Mercado Pago, reported $5.3 billion in net revenue, up 35% year-on-year and in line with estimates.

Its sales measured by gross merchandise value (GMV) rose 14% year-on-year, with Brazil, its largest market, reporting 34% growth and Mexico growing 27%.

Chief Financial Officer Martin de los Santos told Reuters that most of the profitability pressure in the quarter came from the firm's spending push to boost its credit-card portfolio and e-commerce logistics.

"What probably happened is that the market did underestimate the amount of investments we are doing in credit card," he told Reuters when asked about the profit miss.

MercadoLibre's operational results, as measured by earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT), came in at $557 million in the quarter, down almost 30% year-on-year and also below analysts' expectations of $783 million.

Its EBIT margin came in at 10.8%, from 18.2% a year earlier in comparable terms.

Mercado Pago's credit portfolio reached $6 billion in the quarter, up 77% year-on-year at its fastest growth since the first quarter of 2022.

(Reporting by Andre Romani in Sao Paulo; Editing by Kylie Madry)