Buenos Aires, Argentine – 21 September 2017 –
Online travel company Despegar.com met its goal of raising US$332 million in the first overseas initial public offering for an Argentine company in more than 16 months.
The Buenos Aires-based online booking company, which operates under the Despegar brand in most of Latin America and Decolar in Brazil, sells hotels, airline tickets, travel packages and other related products.
Latin America online travel bookings are projected to grow 12.5 percent to approximately US$47.6 billion by 2020, according to data by Euromonitor International cited in the company’s filing. The company’s sales, or gross bookings, are also forecast to rise by 12 percent in 2017, according to Buenos Aires-based consulting firm Delphos Investment.
“Investors are seeing the potential in a company that’s exposed to Latin American consumption trends that are going through a cyclical recovery period,” said Delphos analyst Manuel Terre by phone. “We expect the company’s gross bookings to grow at attractive rates.”