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Prosus to Buy Online Travel Agency Despegar for $1.7 Billion

Fabricio Bloisi Photographer: Hollie Adams/Bloomberg (Hollie Adams/Bloomberg)

(Bloomberg) -- Prosus NV is acquiring online travel agency Despegar.com Corp. for $1.7 billion as the Dutch technology investor seeks to expand its online commerce presence in Latin America.

Despegar’s board approved the offer of $19.50 a share, a 33% premium to the closing price on Dec. 20, Prosus said in a statement Monday. 

“This acquisition demonstrates our strategy to build value by creating high-quality ecosystems of complementary technology businesses,” Prosus Chief Executive Officer Fabricio Bloisi said. “We will accelerate Despegar’s growth by leveraging the extensive customer touchpoints within our portfolio.”

Prosus was an early investor in Tencent Holdings Ltd., and is now scouring the globe for companies in an effort to replicate its success with the Chinese internet firm. Bloisi, who prior to taking the helm at Prosus in July ran its Latin American iFood delivery service, stands to earn a $100 million moonshot pay package if he can double the company’s value in four years. 

The group has sold off some investments since Bloisi took over, including a stake in Indian online food delivery firm Swiggy during its initial public offering and its holding in China’s Trip.com for about $1.5 billion. This is its first big acquisition under Bloisi, although more deals are expected as he seeks rapid growth. 

Despegar operates in nineteen countries and handles over 9.5 million transactions a year. The company did $5.3 billion in gross bookings in its 2023 financial year.

The deal, which is expected to close during the second quarter of 2025 pending regulatory approval, will add to Prosus’s e-commerce portfolio in Latin America, where it also has a classified business OLX, iFood and events platform Sympla. 

Upon completion, the group will have about 100 million customers and over $500 million in e-commerce earnings before interest and tax in Latin America, according to a Prosus presentation. 

Prosus has redoubled its efforts to deploy the company’s capital, focusing on sectors including online food, classifieds, payments and fintech, Prosus Chief Investment Officer and President Ervin Tu told Bloomberg last month. 

Prosus, through Naspers, made a blockbuster investment in Tencent in 2001, when it paid $34 million for nearly half of the company. Today, it owns about a quarter of the firm, which has a market value of about $480 billion. The group’s investment in the Chinese tech giant has distorted Prosus’s stock price and created a gap between the value of the stake and the rest of the group’s businesses.

(Updates with details starting with CEO comments in third paragraph.)

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