* Q1'11 net income increased by 46.1% year-over-year to $14.1 million
* Items sold during Q1'11 increased by 30.7% year-over-year to 10.9 million
* Total payments transactions in Q1'11 increased by 148.8% to 2.6 million
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina, May 4, 2011 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- MercadoLibre, Inc. (Nasdaq:MELI) (), Latin America's leading e-commerce technology company, today reported financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2011.
Marcos Galperin, President and Chief Executive Officer of MercadoLibre, Inc., commented, "We had a very strong start to 2011, as we continued to see growth across all areas of our business. During the quarter, we continued to make great progress in expanding the breadth of offering available, bringing greater simplicity and satisfaction to each user experience, and driving increased transactions on our platforms. Importantly, we continue to make investments in our platform architecture to ensure that we are competitively positioned for the future."
Financial Results Summary
MercadoLibre reported consolidated net revenues for the three months ended March 31, 2011 of $61.5 million, representing 33.8% year-over-year growth.Revenue growth was negatively impacted by the pre-sale of credit card receivables beginning in the third quarter of 2010. Had the company carried out similar pre-sales of credit card receivables during 2010, revenue growth would have been 44.4% during the first quarter of 2011 as compared to the prior year quarter.
For the three months ended March 31, 2011, items sold on MercadoLibre grew 30.7% to 10.9 million while total payments transactions through MercadoPago grew 148.8% to 2.6 million as compared to the first quarter of 2010. Gross merchandise volume for the first quarter 2011 grew 30.4% year-over-year to $954.0 million, while total payment volume grew 98.1% year-over-year to $245.2 million.
Income from operations grew 24.4% to $19.3 million in the first quarter of 2011 compared to $15.5 million in the first quarter of 2010. Operating income margin for the first quarter of 2011 was 31.4%. Growth in income from operations was also negatively impacted by the pre-sale of credit card receivables.
Net income for the three months ended March 31, 2011, was $14.1 million, representing 46.1% growth over the prior year quarter. Net income margin was 22.9% for the first quarter of 2011, compared to 20.9% for the same period last year. Earnings per share for the first quarter of 2011 were $0.32 compared to $0.22 for the prior year quarter.
Free cash flow, defined as cash from operating activities less purchases of property, equipment and intangible asset, was $12.2 million for the three months ended March 31, 2011.
The following table summarizes certain key performance metrics for the three months ended March 31, 2010 and 2011.
Change in MercadoPago Financing Operations
Starting in the third quarter of 2010, the company began to pre-sell credit card receivables from its MercadoPago financing operations. For this reason, starting in the third quarter of 2010, MercadoPago financing revenues now represent the net amount received from financing institutions as a result of pre-selling these installments-related financing receivables. Credit card receivables are being pre-sold in order to better manage credit risk; generate increased predictability of the associated cost; and not assume any financing risk.
The following table may prove helpful to analyze the annual evolution of the company's revenue growth, as it shows consolidated net revenues since Q1 of 2009 net of MercadoPago financing cost:
MercadoLibre provides consolidated net revenues net of MercadoPago financing costs because it believes that such presentation is a beneficial supplemental disclosure to investors in analyzing and assessing the historical revenue growth of the company.
Conference Call and Webcast
The Company will host a conference call and audio webcast on May 4, 2011 at 4:30 p.m. Eastern Time. The conference call may be accessed by dialing (970) 315-0420 or (877) 303-7209 (Conference ID 63001762) and requesting inclusion in the call for MercadoLibre. 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
Total confirmed registered users – Measure of the cumulative number of users who have registered on the MercadoLibre Marketplace and confirmed their registration.
New confirmed registered users – Measure of the number of new users who have registered on the MercadoLibre Marketplace and confirmed their registration.
Gross merchandise volume – Measure of the total U.S. dollar sum of all transactions completed through the MercadoLibre Marketplace, excluding motor vehicles, vessels, aircraft, real estate, and services.
Items sold – Measure of the number of items sold/purchased through the MercadoLibre Marketplace.
Total payment volume – Measure of total U.S. dollar sum of all transactions paid for using MercadoPago.
Total payment transactions – Measure of the number of all transactions paid for using MercadoPago.
Operating margin – Defined as income from operations as a percentage of net revenues.
Net Income margin – Defined as net income as a percentage of net revenues.
Free Cash Flow – Defined as cash flow from operating activities less purchases of property, equipment and intangible asset.
About MercadoLibre
Founded in 1999, MercadoLibre is Latin America's leading e-commerce technology company. Through its primary platforms, MercadoLibre.com and MercadoPago.com, it provides solutions to individuals and companies buying, selling, advertising, and paying for goods online.
MercadoLibre.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 each country in which it operates according to metrics provided by comScore Networks. MercadoLibre maintains a leadership position in 12 Latin American countries. The Company is listed on NASDAQ (Nasdaq:MELI) following its initial public offering in 2007.
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CONTACT: MercadoLibre, Inc. Investor Relations Pedro Arnt investor@mercadolibre.com http://investor.mercadolibre.com
