LatAm TMT & Education: Feedback from Meetings with U.S. and Canadian Investors

We spent last week meeting 20 investors in the United States and Canada. The main stocks discussed were MELI, Totvs and TEO, although there were also conversations on Brazilian & Mexican telcos, and some touched on Brazilian education. MELI: positioning is lighter than in previous trips, with many investors having reduced or eliminated their positions, in many cases swapped into SE. Bulls see a high-quality compounder where margins are the missing catalyst, pointing to the growing credit business with higher margins than commerce, potential room for e-commerce penetration in Brazil, and possibly too-conservative Street long-term margin forecasts; many say they will only engage once margins are clearly inflecting. Bears see valuation as demanding while the margin recovery is still unproven, competition not easing in the short term with Amazon, Shopee and TikTok Shop all investing, and agentic commerce a risk if price becomes the only differentiator;