El Puerto de Liverpool S.A.B. de C.V

What it is

El Puerto de Liverpool is a Mexican company built around three interlocking businesses: department stores, consumer credit, and shopping malls. It runs 124 Liverpool stores and 188 Suburbia outlets, operates 28 malls, and has over 7.4 million credit accounts.

The credit arm — issuing Liverpool-branded cards and a Suburbia Visa — is not a side business; it is a deliberate profit engine that ties shoppers to the ecosystem and earns interest income on top of retail margins. Liverpool also holds a 50% stake in Unicomer Group, which operates retail chains across 26 Latin American countries.

Who owns it

Ownership is dominated by the Michel and Bremond families, who together control an estimated 75% of shares; the public free float is roughly 25%, with BlackRock and Vanguard among the institutional holders. A dual-class share structure locks in family control of board appointments and major corporate decisions regardless of how many outside investors own economic stakes.

The founding line traces to 1847, when Jean Baptiste Ebrard — a Barcelonnette immigrant — opened a dry-goods shop in Mexico City; ownership moved through inheritance and marriages into the Michel and Bremond clans over subsequent generations. Institutional investors, including Mexican pension funds (Afores), hold about 27% of the float per EODHD data.

Who runs it

Enrique Güijosa Hidalgo is Chief Executive Officer. Gonzalo Gallegos serves as Chief Financial Officer, and Graciano Guichard Michel — a family member — chairs the board.

The chairman has held that role since March 2024 and also sits on the board of Unicomer Group. Vice-chair Madeleine Brémond, a 33-year board veteran, represents the other founding family line.

The money, in plain words

Liverpool generated MXN 227.6bn / US$13.1bn in sales in its most recent fiscal year, up 6.5% from the prior year — and up 16.8% over two years (our calculations). Revenue growth has slowed from the post-pandemic surge, but the direction is consistently upward.

From every peso of those sales, it keeps about 7.3 cents as net profit — a net margin of 7.3%, reasonable for a department-store group that also carries a large credit book. For every peso shareholders have invested, the company earns back about 9.7 cents per year — a return on equity of 9.7%, which is solid but below its 2024 peak, partly because a large new investment (Nordstrom) consumed cash.

At a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.1×, the stock trades at a meaningful discount to global retail peers — the market is pricing in execution risk around the Nordstrom bet. The dividend yield of 2.9% is paid from a balance sheet with MXN 25.3bn / US$1.46bn in cash and, to date, no disclosed long-term debt (our calculation).

What it is doing now

In May 2025, Liverpool and the Nordstrom family completed an all-cash acquisition of Nordstrom at $24.25 per share. The deal takes Nordstrom fully private; the Nordstrom family holds 50.1% and Liverpool holds the remaining 49.9%.

This was Liverpool’s first investment in a US company, begun in 2022 as a passive minority stake when it held substantial cash and wanted geographic diversification. That minority position has now become a near-half ownership of a 380-store US luxury-and-off-price retailer — a transformative commitment that gives Liverpool a direct foothold in the world’s largest consumer market.

What to watch

• Nordstrom integration and performance. Liverpool now has nearly half its investable capital tied to a US retailer navigating a difficult department-store environment; Nordstrom’s revenue trajectory is the single largest variable in Liverpool’s medium-term story.
• Margin recovery. Net profit fell from MXN 23.2bn / US$1.34bn in fiscal 2024 to MXN 17.2bn / US$989m in fiscal 2025 — a 26% drop — even as sales grew (our calculation). Investors will want to see operating leverage reassert itself.
• Credit quality. The store credit-card book is both a competitive advantage and a hidden risk; a Mexican consumer credit-quality deterioration would hit Liverpool harder than a pure retailer.
• Digital sales. Online revenue has reached roughly 28% of retail sales by mid-2025, up from 18% in 2021 — continued growth here is key to justifying the current valuation.
• Family succession. Analysts expect a gradual handover to the next generation of the Michel and Bremond families through 2026, with family voting control remaining decisive. Any change in leadership tone matters for a company where strategy is set inside the family boardroom.

This is news, not investment advice.

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