Desktop – Sigmanet Comunicação Multimídia S.A.

What it is

Desktop is a fibre-optic internet provider — it lays and owns the cables, then sells broadband connections to homes and businesses; its network spans roughly 55,000 km across 194 towns in the state of São Paulo.

One stated aim is to reach both urban centres and rural towns — a deliberate choice that keeps Desktop out of the most fiercely contested city markets while locking up subscribers in smaller municipalities where rivals are slower to follow.

Who owns it

The controlling block belongs to Makalu Brasil Partners I J FIP, a private-equity fund, which holds 52.91% of all shares as of 30 April 2025. The founder and CEO, Denio Alves Lindo, sits on the board and holds a further 14.82% in his own name, meaning the two controlling parties together account for roughly two-thirds of the company.

The remaining ~32% is free float — the shares available to outside investors on B3 — with institutional funds holding about 81.5% of that tradeable slice (EODHD data).

Who runs it

Denio Alves Lindo is both board chair and CEO — an electrical-engineering graduate of Unicamp (1991) who ran Desktop’s predecessor internet business from 1998 and has led the current company since its founding.

Bruno Silva Carvalho de Souza Leão serves as Director of M&A, Investor Relations and Finance; he joined from the private-equity firm H.I.G. Capital.

André Falcão Ribeiro, a former Telefônica Vivo executive who joined Desktop in 2023, leads the commercial and sales-channel function.

The money, in plain words

Revenue has grown every year: R$986m (US$191 mn) in FY2023, R$1.13bn (US$219 mn) in FY2024, and R$1.22bn (US$237 mn) in FY2025 — that is a 23.5% total rise over two years (our calculation). The top line is expanding; the bottom line is not keeping pace.

Net profit has actually fallen — from R$102m (US$20 mn) in FY2023 to R$71m (US$14 mn) in FY2025 — compressing the net profit margin (what the company keeps from each real of sales) from 10.4% to 5.9% over the same period (our calculation). Rising costs on the network, not a revenue problem, appear to be the culprit.

For every real of owners’ equity in the business, it earned about 5 cents last year — a return on equity of 5.1% (our calculation), modest by sector standards and well below the 34.9× price-to-earnings ratio the market still awards it.

The balance sheet carries R$465m (~US$90m) in cash and no disclosed short-term debt, giving a strong liquidity floor; total liabilities of R$2.42bn (US$470 mn) against total assets of R$3.86bn (US$749 mn) reflect the capital-heavy nature of running a private fibre network (EODHD data). Desktop currently pays no dividend, reinvesting cash into its network.

What it is doing now

With roughly 55,000 km of owned fibre already in the ground across 194 São Paulo municipalities, the company’s growth strategy is geographic expansion — adding towns rather than cutting prices in towns it already serves.

The company site lists well over 200 cities where it either operates or plans to launch, stretching from the coast (Santos, Praia Grande) to the agricultural heartland (Ribeirão Preto, Bauru, São José do Rio Preto) — a deliberate push beyond its original Campinas-area core.

What to watch

• Margin recovery. Net profit fell 30% in two years even as sales rose; whether the company can widen its 5.9% net margin back toward the double-digit levels of FY2023 is the single most important number to track.
• Debt disclosure. Short-term debt is listed as null in current filings; investors should watch for capital-market issuances as the network build-out accelerates.
• Valuation tension. A 34.9× P/E on a 5.1% return-on-equity leaves almost no room for disappointment — any guidance cut would likely re-price the stock sharply.
• Ownership concentration. Makalu (52.9%) and founder Lindo (14.8%) together control 67.7% of votes; minority investors have limited ability to challenge strategic decisions.
• Competitive pressure. National carriers and well-funded regional fibre operators are also building in São Paulo’s smaller cities, which could slow Desktop’s subscriber additions.

This is news, not investment advice.