Arrendadora Centroamericana, S.A.

What it is

ARCESA does two things: it finances equipment purchases through leasing contracts (where a business uses an asset and can buy it at the end of the term) and it buys companies’ unpaid invoices at a discount so they get cash today instead of waiting — a service called factoring.

The company was incorporated in Guatemala on 1 December 1978 and has operated continuously since. With more than 45 years in the market, it is one of the oldest non-bank financial operators in Central America.

Since 1993, ARCESA has raised money from investors on the Bolsa de Valores Nacional (BVNSA) by issuing short-term debt notes called pagarés — meaning the public listing is on the debt side, not the equity side; there are no publicly traded shares.

Guatemala formalised leasing as a distinct financial activity in February 2021 with the passage of Decree 2-2021, the Ley de Leasing, which established a national regulatory framework for leasing contracts and the rights of all parties involved. That legal clarity has supported the sector’s expansion.

Who owns it

The number of shareholders of Arrendadora Centroamericana, S.A. exceeds 25. The prospectus filed with BVNSA does not name any individual shareholder or disclose individual ownership percentages — a gap that is consistent with Guatemala’s securities disclosure rules, which require financial transparency for debt issuers but do not mandate public disclosure of private shareholder registers for closely held companies unless they trigger specific thresholds.

Since 2009, ARCESA has itself been the controlling shareholder of Rentas y Cobros, S.A. — branded as Leasing Total — holding 99% of that subsidiary’s capital. The two entities together form the ARCESA group’s leasing platform.

Board members named in the most recent BVNSA prospectus include Sr. Roberto Francisco Zachrisson Gómez, Sr.

Johann Dieterich Nottebohm Goetz, Sr. Luis Estuardo Auyón Martínez, Sr.

Herbert Estuardo González Hertzsch, Sr. John Christian Bellamy Bellamy, Lic.

Carlos Rafael Méndez Duarte, Licda. María de los Ángeles de Valdez, and Licda.

Paola Valdez de Pinillos. The Zachrisson and Nottebohm surnames are associated with long-established Guatemalan business families, though individual ownership stakes are not disclosed in public filings.

Who runs it

A director of BCT Bank International (Costa Rica) is separately recorded as holding the role of President (board chair) of Arrendadora Centroamericana, S.A., though that individual’s name is not legible in the available extract of that governance document. Not published: the names of the current Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer are not disclosed in any public filing accessible on the BVNSA, RMVM, or ARCESA investor-relations pages; the BVNSA prospectus lists board members but does not identify a separate CEO or CFO by title.

The money, in plain words

At the end of 2022 — the most recent year for which full audited figures are publicly readable — total assets stood at Q 410.4 million (~US $53.9 million), shareholders’ equity was Q 155.0 million (~US $20.3 million), and the company earned Q 31.8 million (~US $4.2 million) for the year.

For every quetzal owners had put in, ARCESA earned roughly 20.5 cents that year — a return on equity of approximately 20.5% (our calculation: Q 31.8 m ÷ Q 155.0 m), which is strong for a specialist non-bank lender in an emerging market. The leasing book — contracts out with clients — was Q 121.3 million net (~US $15.9 million).

For 2024, the legal reserve — a fund that Guatemalan law requires companies to top up at 10% of annual profit each year — rose from Q 18.7 million at end-2023 to Q 20.4 million at end-2024. That Q 1.67 million addition implies a 2024 net profit of approximately Q 16.7 million (~US $2.2 million), roughly half the 2022 level (our calculation).

Not published: a full income statement for 2024, including total revenue, operating costs, and net margin, is filed with the RMVM but the PDF is not machine-readable in available search results; the BVNSA audited-statements page returned a 403 access error at time of writing.

The most recent debt programme — PAGARÉS ARRENDA V — was authorised on the BVNSA for a revolving maximum of Q 100 million (~US $13.1 million). This is the primary way the company funds its leasing book: it borrows from Guatemalan investors via these notes and lends that money out as leases.

What it is doing now

ARCESA’s original PAGARÉS ARRENDA I programme — active since 1993 — was formally cancelled by the Registro del Mercado de Valores y Mercancías under resolution RMVM-1/2024 on 31 January 2024, consolidating the company’s market funding under the newer, larger PAGARÉS ARRENDA V programme.

Investment volumes have grown at more than 10% per year on average over the past five years, and ARCESA presents itself as a provider of tailored financial solutions — leasing, factoring, and investments — backed by more than 45 years of continuous operation.

What to watch

• Profit trend: The implied 2024 net profit of ~Q 16.7 million is materially lower than 2022’s Q 31.8 million. When the full 2024 income statement becomes readable, investors will want to understand whether this reflects rising funding costs, slower new business, or higher provisioning on the leasing book.
• Ownership disclosure: Guatemala’s securities regulator does not yet require debt issuers to publish a full shareholder register. Any move toward equity listing — or a change in regulatory rules — would require that gap to be closed.
• Leasing law impact: The 2021 Ley de Leasing created formal legal certainty for leasing contracts for the first time. How quickly the broader market expands under that framework will determine whether ARCESA’s growth rate accelerates from its recent 10%-a-year pace.
• Subsidiary performance: ARCESA’s consolidated position depends partly on Leasing Total (Rentas y Cobros, S.A.); that subsidiary’s numbers are not broken out in public filings.

This is news, not investment advice.