Alsea S.A.B. de C.V

What it is

Alsea does not own the famous names it serves; it pays for the right to run them. It is a Mexican multi-brand restaurant operator based in Mexico City, whose portfolio of fast-food, casual-dining and café chains spans Mexico, South America and Europe.

Its brands include Starbucks, Burger King, Vips, Domino’s, Italianni’s, Chili’s, P. F.

Chang’s and The Cheesecake Factory, with Raising Cane’s and Chipotle expected to open in Mexico in 2026. In short, it is one of the largest restaurant operators in Latin America and Europe.

Who owns it

This is a family business that happens to be listed on the stock market. The Torrado Martínez family, holding 36.5% of the shares, is Alsea’s majority owner.

The rest trades freely, and large fund managers have been buying. Norges Bank Investment Management held 4.97% as of June 2025, followed by BlackRock with 3.73% and Vanguard with 2.57%.

Alsea runs on a one-share-one-vote basis, with no special founder shares, and independent directors hold a majority of board seats.

Who runs it

The top job changed hands in 2025, but stayed in the family’s orbit. The board named Christian Gurría Dubernard as CEO from 1 July 2025, replacing Armando Torrado Martínez after almost three years in the role.

Gurría is a company insider, not an outsider. He joined in 1991 as a Domino’s store operator and went on to lead Starbucks in Mexico and later in France and Benelux.

Power now splits cleanly between an executive and the founding family. Armando Torrado Martínez moved up to serve as chairman of the board, while the founder, Alberto Torrado Martínez, remains a director.

The money, in plain words

Sales are growing steadily. Revenue rose to MXN 85.4bn (US$4.93bn) in 2025 from MXN 79.3bn (US$4.6 bn) the year before — a gain of about 7.6% (our calculation).

The catch is how little of that turns into profit. The company keeps only about 3 centavos of every peso of sales — a net profit margin of 2.6% (our calculation), thin even for a restaurant business, because rent, food and debt eat most of the rest.

Yet for the owners the return looks strong, because they put in relatively little equity. Every peso of owners’ money earned about 25 back over the year — a return on equity of 25.4%, helped by heavy borrowing rather than fat margins.

That borrowing is the thing to keep an eye on: of MXN 80.3bn (US$4.6 bn) in total assets, MXN 71.5bn (US$4.1 bn) is owed to others, leaving just MXN 8.7bn (US$505m) of owners’ equity (our calculation). The shares trade at 18.4 times annual earnings — a price-to-earnings ratio that prices in a recovery, not a bargain.

What it is doing now

The strategy is to prune weak markets and add hot new brands. Alsea sold its Burger King operations in Spain in 2024, and it has exited Chili’s and P.F.

Chang’s in Chile to focus on higher-return markets while welcoming Raising Cane’s and Chipotle to the portfolio.

Mexico and digital ordering are doing the heavy lifting. First-quarter 2025 sales grew 12.8%, driven largely by the Mexican market and by digital sales, which already make up nearly 39% of total revenue.

What to watch

Three things. First, whether new CEO Gurría can lift that razor-thin margin — his central challenge is raising and stabilising the profitability of the business as a whole.

Second, the heavy debt load in a high-interest world. Third, demand: Alsea faces a complex backdrop in Argentina and Europe, possible weaker consumer spending in Mexico, tougher fast-food competition in Europe and persistent raw-material inflation.

This is news, not investment advice.