Carboclor

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What it is

Carboclor runs four lines of business: it refines basic organic chemicals such as isopropyl alcohol and secondary butyl alcohol from oil-refinery streams; it resells chemicals bought from third parties; it distributes them in the local Argentine market; and it operates a port terminal — loading and unloading vessels, trucks, and containers, and running laboratory tests and warehousing.

The industrial site covers 32 hectares in Campana and holds its own berth on the Paraná de las Palmas river, capable of handling vessels up to 220 metres long at a natural depth of at least 32 feet. Over the past decade the company has made a deliberate shift away from petrochemical production toward logistics and terminal services.

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Who owns it

Carboclor is part of the ANCAP Group — the National Administration of Fuels, Alcohols, and Portland, the state energy company of Uruguay — which is its majority shareholder; the remaining participation is held by minority shareholders through the Buenos Aires Stock Exchange.

ANCAP controls Carboclor with approximately 81% of shares through its subsidiary ANCSOL, while the remaining ~16% belongs to minority shareholders trading on the Buenos Aires exchange. The structured data records ANCSOL’s stake at 84.11%, with a free float of roughly 15.9% — meaning only about one peso in six is freely traded.

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Who runs it

Individual names for Carboclor’s CEO or CFO are not disclosed in available investor-relations or exchange filings accessible to this profile. Carboclor describes its governing body as a board of directors, with ANCAP — its Uruguayan state parent — as the ultimate principal.

ANCAP itself is an integrated state energy company and market leader in Uruguay, active across fuels, lubricants, Portland cement, and biofuels. Carboclor’s strategic direction therefore flows from Montevideo, not from Campana.

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The money, in plain words

Sales grew fast between 2023 and 2024 — from ARS 10.3 bn (US$7 mn) (~$7.0M) to ARS 15.8 bn (US$11 mn) (~$10.8M), a jump of 54% (our calculation) — then steadied, rising just under 4% to ARS 16.4 bn (US$11 mn) (~$11.2M) in FY2025 (our calculation). The business is generating positive net income again: ARS 974 (US$0.67)M (~$666K) in FY2025, a net profit margin of 5.9% (our calculation), after a near-breakeven ARS 191 (US$0.13)M in FY2024.

The return on equity — the profit owners earn on every peso of capital they have left in — is only 0.35%, barely above zero, reflecting how hard Argentina’s inflation and exchange-rate turbulence has made it to earn real returns. At a price-to-earnings ratio of 230×, the market is paying very dearly for each peso of current earnings; that multiple makes sense only if investors expect profits to rise sharply, or if the asset value of the terminal land and berth is the real attraction.

The company holds ARS 4.8 bn (US$3 mn) (~$3.3M) in cash and, unusually, reports no financial debt at all (our calculation), leaving its balance sheet clean.

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What it is doing now

After seven years of creditor negotiations and court proceedings, Carboclor fully exited a formal insolvency process in mid-2024, when a judge confirmed the conclusion of its creditor agreement and lifted all the asset freezes that had been imposed on it.

Management has since moved to a more aggressive commercial strategy: pushing average tariffs higher, optimising operations, developing new business lines, and securing existing clients to lock in stable revenue flows into the medium term. Recent capital investments include a new liquefied-petroleum-gas line for bulk maritime export, an additional 9,500 cubic metres of heated tank capacity, and the start of exports of animal and vegetable oils and fatty acids.

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What to watch

• Tariff recovery: Carboclor has told Argentina’s securities regulator (CNV) that higher tariffs are the key lever it needs to offset the fixed costs that compressed its gross margin in 2024.
• Owner intentions: ANCAP has previously explored selling Carboclor, so any signal from Montevideo about the asset’s future would move the share price immediately.
• Argentine macro: With all revenues in pesos and a berth serving import and export flows, the company is highly exposed to exchange-rate moves, tariff regulation, and the pace of Argentina’s economic stabilisation.
• Earnings quality: A P/E of 230× with a TTM margin barely below zero means the valuation rests entirely on the expectation of sustained profit recovery — any setback would hit the share price hard.

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This is news, not investment advice.