Corporación MultiBG S.A.

What it is

MultiBG operates as an investment fund whose stated purpose is to invest in all types of securities — government bonds, shares of corporations — and to provide administrative and financial services, as well as to buy, sell, and manage real estate. In practice, the machinery is far simpler: MultiBG holds 80.86% of the shares of Banco de Guayaquil, a stake whose value stood at roughly $483 million as of December 2022.

Banco de Guayaquil is an Ecuador-based bank whose products range from savings accounts and credit cards to commercial loans, mortgages, and securities brokerage. MultiBG collects the dividends that flow up from the bank and distributes most of them to its own shareholders — making it, in effect, a one-asset holding company whose value rises and falls with Ecuador’s second-largest private lender.

Who owns it

In 2011, before launching his first presidential campaign, Guillermo Lasso created a management trust in Ecuador to hold his assets, including approximately 40% of the shares of Corporación MultiBG; the other main shareholders of MultiBG are two of Lasso’s siblings. In total, the company has 46 shareholders.

The current Presidente Ejecutivo of the corporation is Guillermo Lasso Alcívar, son of the former president of Ecuador; the elder Lasso does not figure among the current administrators of the entity. The free float on the Bolsa de Valores de Guayaquil is thin — the Lasso family group controls the overwhelming majority of shares, and trading is infrequent.

Who runs it

The company’s official shareholder notices are signed by Guillermo Lasso Alcívar in his capacity as Presidente Ejecutivo — the top executive role. PricewaterhouseCoopers del Ecuador Cia.

Ltda. serves as external auditor, and the company’s statutory commissioner (comisario) is Ing.

Arturo Salcedo López. A CFO or board chair is not separately disclosed in available public filings.

The money, in plain words

MultiBG earns money in exactly one way: it receives dividends declared by Banco de Guayaquil and keeps a tiny slice for running costs before passing the rest to its own shareholders. Banco de Guayaquil reported a net profit of $49.84 million for the first half of 2024 alone — suggesting a strong full-year result for the bank, and by extension for MultiBG.

According to the Bolsa de Valores de Guayaquil’s March 2025 disclosure, the board resolved at its February 17, 2025 annual meeting to pay a cash dividend of $43,750,000 — or $1.1012 per share — for the 2024 financial year. At a share price of $15.77, that is a dividend yield of roughly 7.0% (our calculation) — generous by any standard, and especially so in a dollarised economy where inflation risk is minimal.

The company’s subscribed and paid-in capital stands at $39,729,420.

Operating costs are negligible: the company runs from a single floor of the Banco de Guayaquil building with no meaningful payroll of its own. That means nearly every dollar of dividend income from the bank flows straight through to profit — a net margin that has historically approached 100%, though the exact 2024 figure is not separately disclosed in publicly available filings.

What it is doing now

The annual shareholders’ meeting for the 2024 fiscal year was held on February 17, 2025, at which point the $43.75 million dividend for 2024 was approved. Banks in Ecuador maintained their leadership in profitability in 2024 despite additional taxes and economic uncertainty, with Banco de Guayaquil specifically cited for its financial strength and commitment to shareholders.

The company also selected its external auditor for the 2025 financial year at that same meeting. No capital increases, new share issuances, or significant acquisitions have been disclosed in available sources for 2024–2025.

What to watch

• Banco de Guayaquil’s full-year 2024 profit — this is the single number that drives everything MultiBG earns and distributes.
• Ecuador’s banking sector taxes — banks faced additional taxes in 2024; any further increases would compress the profits flowing up to MultiBG.
• Governance concentration — with 46 shareholders and one family in control, the company’s strategic decisions are opaque; any change in the Lasso family’s shareholding structure would be a material event.
• Disclosure standards — MultiBG does not publish audited annual financial statements in a freely accessible format, making it unusually difficult to analyse for a listed company; regulators and investors may push for greater transparency.

This is news, not investment advice.