He pointed out that other major investments in the tourism sector have declined. It keeps coming back. After the Covid-19 pandemic. ProsusA technology conglomerate controlled by Naspers. 1.7 billion dollars paid. to acquire take offOne of the biggest online travel agencies in Latin America to expand its operations in the region.
Despegar's board of directors has now approved the deal, which will now be put to a shareholder vote, Prosus said in a statement today. It expects to close the deal in Q2 of 2025.
With GDP across LatAm expected to grow by 2% to 3% next year, Prosus wants to use Despegar to tap into larger areas of the region's economy. It already owns iFood, Latin America's answer to Ticketmaster, and Sympla's food delivery platform. All three properties will have 100 million users after the deal closes.
“This acquisition clearly demonstrates our strategy to build value by creating a high-quality ecosystem of complementary businesses,” Fabricio Bloisi, CEO of Prosus Group, said in a statement. “Despegar is a highly profitable company with an attractive market position and an experienced management team, which makes it a natural addition to our presence in Latin America. We will accelerate Despegar's growth by leveraging a wide range of customer touch points within our portfolio.”
local economy It's a fitting outcome for Despegar, which has struggled to grow in the last decade of social and public health turmoil.
The Argentina-based company is publicly traded on the NYSE and was worth $1.24 billion at market close last Friday. The deal, which will specifically see Prosus pay $19.50 per share, is a 33% premium to this price; But that's still less than Despegar's market cap on the first day of public trading in 2017.
On Despegar's side; This may allow the company to increase investments in the near term.
“For our customers, this means an expanded portfolio of services, better experiences, loyalty benefits and more comprehensive solutions tailored to their needs,” Despegar's CEO Damián Scokin said in a statement.
The deal is one of the latest ventures to invest in travel and travel technology. last week Hostaway — which builds software for the private short-term rental market — raised $365 million led by General Atlantic. General Atlantic was once an investor in Despegar, a private company. Other backers over the years include Accel; Tiger Global; Sequoia Hotel giant Accor; This includes TPG and Yahoo (TechCrunch's parent company).
Despegar is one of the older and bigger online travel brands on the market (it has been around since 1999 and controls another Latin American travel brand, Decolar in Brazil);
In these days, It is active in 19 different markets in the region and banks, It operates both direct-to-consumer services in addition to white-label offerings used by airlines and other retailers that sell travel services to their customers.
yes We've adapted to the times and built a conversational chatbot called Sofia. Competing with rivals like Hotel Urbano, Despegar does about 9.5 million transactions annually, with $5.3 billion in total bookings. Revenue of $706 million and EBITDA of $116 million (based on its 2023 full-year results).