Carlos Casado

What it is

Carlos Casado S.A. was founded in 1883 by Carlos Casado del Alisal, a Spanish-Argentine land developer, and incorporated as a stock company in 1909; it has traded on the Buenos Aires exchange since 1958.

Its most important asset is the ownership of 200,000 hectares in the Paraguayan Chaco — a vast, thinly settled frontier region bordering Brazil, Argentina, and Bolivia — which it uses for soy and corn crops and cattle raising.

The business runs across three segments: Real Estate (acquiring and leasing land and farm facilities), Financial (managing investments in other companies), and Agricultural (pastures, livestock, crops, and agribusiness consulting).

Who owns it

Carlos Casado is majority-controlled by the Spanish group SANJOSE, which began buying shares in 2007. Investor estimates based on public filings put Grupo San José’s stake at roughly 52% of the company.

Grupo San José (BME: GSJ) is a Spanish listed construction and renewable energy company, founded in 1962 by José María Sánchez Rivas and Manuel Gándara Castro. The remaining shares trade freely on the Buenos Aires exchange; institutional ownership is negligible at 0.1% and no insider ownership is reported in available data.

Who runs it

The names of the current CEO and CFO of Carlos Casado S.A. are not disclosed in available sources; the company’s investor-relations page does not publish executive biographies. A member of Grupo San José’s board holds the position of Vice-President of Carlos Casado, reflecting the parent’s direct oversight of the subsidiary.

The money, in plain words

Sales recovered strongly after a painful 2023: FY2024 revenue came in at ARS 11.8 bn (~USD 8.1 M), up 41.6% from FY2023’s ARS 8.3 bn (US$6 mn) (our calculation), though still below the ARS 14.6 bn (US$10 mn) recorded in FY2022 — a net two-year revenue decline of 19.2% (our calculation) that reflects Argentina’s currency distortions as much as anything operational.

The company swung from a large loss of ARS 4.1 bn (~USD 2.8 M) in 2023 back to a net profit of ARS 827 M (~USD 566 K) in 2024. On a trailing twelve-month basis, it now keeps about 38 cents of profit from every peso of sales — a net profit margin of 38.1%, which is high, but partly reflects asset revaluation gains typical of land-holding companies in inflationary Argentina.

For every peso of shareholders’ equity, the company earns about 5.4 cents a year — a return on equity of 5.4%, modest but positive after two difficult years. At a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.6×, investors are paying a full price relative to today’s earnings; there is no dividend.

The balance sheet is notably clean: total assets of ARS 65.2 bn (~USD 44.6 M) are funded overwhelmingly by equity of ARS 51.9 bn (~USD 35.5 M), and the company carries essentially no financial debt (our calculation). The cash balance of ARS 318 M (~USD 218 K) is thin, but the land itself — carried on the books at historical cost — is the real cushion.

“The fair value of these assets, according to internal management valuation, exceeds their net book value.”

What it is doing now

The company filed its Q1 2025 consolidated financial statements, the most recent public filing available, continuing a series of quarterly reports that show operational activity across all three business segments. The Chaco land was recently connected to the “bioceanic” road corridor linking Atlantic and Pacific ports of South America, a development that could raise the land’s economic value and accessibility over time.

What to watch

• Land value vs. book value. The 200,000 hectares are the company’s real story; any independent revaluation or partial sale would transform the reported numbers immediately.
• Argentina’s peso. All revenue is reported in Argentine pesos; a further devaluation shrinks every USD-equivalent figure, whatever happens operationally.
• Parent strategy. Grupo San José controls the company but has never launched a full buyout; any move toward delisting or a tender offer would be the single largest event for minority shareholders.
• Bioceanic corridor. The new road linking the Chaco to both coasts could attract agribusiness investment to the region — raising land prices and, with them, Carlos Casado’s most important asset.
• Governance transparency. Named executives and exact ownership percentages are not publicly disclosed, which is an unusual gap for a listed company and a real risk for outside investors.

This is news, not investment advice.