MercadoLibre, Argentina’s e-commerce giant, recently announced a US$800M round of debt financing that will be open to regular consumers. These bonds will expire in 2028, at which point they can be exchanged for regular MercadoLibre stock (MELI), for cash, or a combination of the two. MercadoLibre will use the funding to develop its logistics and payments operations.
The bonds will pay an annual 2% interest unless they are sold or bought back by MercadoLibre. MercadoLibre has reserved the right to buy back the bonds by 2023 if necessary.
Marcos Galperin, CEO and co-founder of MercadoLibre, tweeted about the debt round:
“[MercadoLibre] is continuing to democratize commerce and financial services.”
The region’s e-commerce leader plans to use some of the new financing to pay back bonds that were issued in 2014, which will expire in 2019.
Read more in PulsoSocial.
