DISMATEC S.A.

What it is

DISMATEC imports and sells — on credit and for cash — white goods and electronics from brands including Whirlpool, Consul, Samsung and Sony, with pre- and post-sale services, in-house credit and product maintenance. It also sells under its own label, “Kerning,” and has added motorcycles and bicycles to its portfolio.

The company is Bolivia’s leading importer, wholesaler and retailer of home appliances, and operates the retail chain Dismac, with branches in the country’s main cities. By December 2024 it had 24 branches with nationwide reach, spread across Santa Cruz, La Paz, Cochabamba, El Alto, Sucre and Tarija.

Its sales mix, as of December 2024, is led by white goods (refrigerators, washing machines, stoves) at 39% of the total, home and technology products at 36%, and other lines at 25%. Instalment sales follow a conservative policy — terms of 6, 9 or 12 months, granted only to buyers who can demonstrate income, employment history and social-security contributions.

Who owns it

Juan Pablo Saavedra Tardío is Chairman of the Board and Legal Representative of DISMATEC S.A. A related holding company, CST Inversiones S.A., appears in the company’s ASFI filings as a connected entity.

The exact percentage split of the shareholding is not disclosed in available sources.

The company was founded on 3 April 1980 — though the legal entity in its current form was constituted on 12 October 2001 in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, when it registered its bond-issuing corporate structure. It has no government ownership and is a purely private, family-anchored business.

Who runs it

The chief executive is Luis Fernando Saavedra Tardío, who holds a degree in commercial engineering and an MBA — he studied marketing at Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez in Chile and completed his MBA at Santa Clara University in California. He brings 16 years of senior experience across Bolivia and the United States, having served as operations, marketing, commercial and general manager across retail, telecoms and services.

Juan Pablo Saavedra Tardío chairs the board; the surname Saavedra is common to both the chairman and the CEO, indicating a family-led management structure typical of Bolivia’s mid-size private sector. Other named senior officers — including a Retail Finance Manager and a Commercial Manager — handle bond-programme delegations as disclosed in ASFI prospectuses.

The money, in plain words

In 2024, operating revenue grew 8.54% against December 2023, driven by higher product sales even as in-branch service income dipped. The gross margin — the share of each sale left after paying for the goods — reached 34.84% in December 2024, higher than the 32.65% average of the prior five years.

At December 2024, the net profit margin stood at 6.78% — about seven bolivianos of profit kept per hundred of sales — asset turnover was 0.89 times and financial leverage 3.03 times, together delivering a return on equity of 18.20%. That 18% ROE is high for a consumer-goods retailer operating in a frontier market.

Over the five years from 2019 to 2023, sales grew at a compound annual rate of 10.15%, funded in part by a growing bond programme. As of December 2024, the instalment-sales book is described as healthy, with 100% provisioning against balances overdue by more than 90 days and full write-off of balances beyond 180 days.

The balance sheet is leveraged: total liabilities are 2.03 times equity and financial debt alone is 1.64 times equity at December 2024, up from the prior year as the company drew on its bond programmes for working capital and investment. On the positive side, the ratio of operating cash generation to interest expense stood at 3.82 times — meaning the company earns nearly four times what it owes in interest, a comfortable buffer.

What it is doing now

In June 2025, Pacific Credit Rating reaffirmed its BAA rating (equivalent to ASFI’s AA2 — investment-grade, high-quality) with a “Stable” outlook on the Bonos DISMATEC I and II series, and its B1 (N-1, top short-term tier) rating on the commercial-paper programme. This was the most recent public rating action.

In August 2025, ASFI authorised Bonos DISMATEC II – Emisión 2, a further Bs70 million (~US$7.1 million at current rates) tranche within the Bs175 million (~US$17.8 million) Bonos DISMATEC II programme. The proceeds go to working capital and refinancing existing bank debt.

An EMIS industry snapshot shows net revenue rising 21.64% in the most recently reported period into 2025, though that figure is an aggregator estimate and should be verified against audited statements.

What to watch

• Leverage trajectory. Financial debt to equity has been rising with each bond issuance. Any slowdown in collections from the instalment book — the main cash engine — would quickly tighten the interest-coverage cushion.
• Contraband risk. Industry data cited in DISMATEC’s own filings shows contraband goods sell roughly 25% cheaper in Bolivia, with home-goods retail among the most exposed sectors. A crackdown — or the reverse, a regulatory loosening — would move DISMATEC’s volumes sharply.
• Branch efficiency. The company has stopped opening new stores and is focused on squeezing more from its current 24 branches. Whether margins expand or compress in 2025 depends on that discipline.
• Bond maturities. With two active bond series (DISMATEC I and II) and a commercial-paper programme, refinancing risk is a live question in a market where Bolivia’s hard-currency reserves remain under pressure.

This is news, not investment advice.