ELECTROBAN S.A.E.C.A.

What it is

Electroban is a Paraguayan leader in the sale and financing of appliances, technology, notebooks, mobile phones, and household goods, with branches across the country and accessible payment plans designed around each customer. Its core offer covers home appliances, leisure equipment, gardening, gastronomy equipment, commercial laundry, furniture, motorcycles, and tech products.

Born in Villarrica in 2007, the company built its identity around the interior of Paraguay — deliberately targeting communities that large Asunción-based chains ignored. It now carries its own house brand, HD Play, recognised for a wide range of products, and that label already accounts for roughly 40% of total sales.

The business model is built around selling consumer products on credit — appliances, furniture and motorcycles — primarily to customers in smaller towns and cities across Paraguay. This makes Electroban part retailer, part lender: it books the credit in its own loan book and earns interest alongside the product margin.

Who owns it

Hamza Damani serves as both Chairman of the Board (Director Presidente) and CEO of Electroban SAECA, and is the company’s dominant shareholder. The ordinary share capital comprises 103,406 shares worth Gs.

51,703 million — 48.85% of integrated capital — of which 38.68% are single-vote and 61.32% are multiple-vote shares; Karim Hamza Damani Chaparro holds all single-vote shares and a large block of multiple-vote shares, representing the highest concentration of total voting power.

The other significant shareholders are the import company New Life International S.A. and Jorge Javier Achon Fornells — the latter also serving as Board President — together holding 48.19% of share capital and 82.34% of total votes. The remaining shares are distributed among smaller individual investors, giving Electroban a limited but real free float on the Asunción exchange.

Who runs it

The current board comprises Hamza Damani, Fabian Cabral, and Diana Trevisan, with Andrea Benitez as alternate director. Hamza Damani brings more than eight years in senior leadership roles, including as Director Presidente and General Manager in companies of the Damani Group.

Under his direction, Electroban has expanded to 35 locations in Paraguay’s main cities, grown to over 1,000 staff, and launched the HD Play own brand, which now has a firm foothold in the market. A CFO is not separately named in publicly available sources.

The money, in plain words

In the nine months to September 2025, Electroban brought in sales of Gs. 139,969 million (~US$23.1 million, our calculation), a 17.74% rise year-on-year, driven by a strong performance in the appliances line — growing faster than the broader Paraguayan retail market.

Of that revenue, it kept about 5 cents as profit — a net margin of 5.13% and a return on equity of 6.57%, both low by regional retail standards, squeezed by high borrowing costs.

Total assets reached Gs. 447,894 million (~US$74.0 million, our calculation) at September 2025, up 18% year-on-year, but the balance sheet carries significant debt: financial debt equals 57.27% of assets, and the ratio of debt to operating profit (Debt/EBITDA) stands at an elevated 6.58 times — meaning it would take about six and a half years of operating cash flow to pay off all borrowings at today’s rate.

A debt-to-EBITDA above 5x is generally considered high-risk territory.

The other pressure point is credit quality. The credit portfolio — the loans Electroban extends to its customers — is growing fast, but overdue loans of more than 90 days reached a delinquency rate of 26.74%, with a very thin 8.25% provision cover.

That means roughly one in four guaraníes lent out is more than three months late, and the company’s cushion against losses is thin.

What it is doing now

In April 2026, Electroban filed a prospectus for its eleventh bond programme (G11) on the Bolsa de Valores de Asunción, targeting up to Gs. 240,000 million (~US$39.7 million, our calculation) — its largest single bond programme to date.

The funds are primarily earmarked for restructuring short-term bank debt and supplying working capital.

Strategically, the company is pushing hard on geographic expansion into Paraguay’s main cities and on its own-brand HD Play label, which it now imports directly — bypassing third-party brands and capturing a wider margin. The 2025 strategic plan targets brand reinforcement of both HD Play and the Electroban institutional image, with expansion into new markets through branch openings and multi-channel advertising.

What to watch

• Loan quality: With one in four customer loans overdue and provisions covering only 8.25% of bad debt, any deterioration in Paraguay’s consumer economy could quickly erode thin profits.
• Debt servicing: A Debt/EBITDA of 6.58 times leaves little room for error; the success of the G11 bond issue in refinancing short-term bank lines is a near-term test of market confidence.
• Own-brand margins: HD Play already accounts for ~40% of sales; if the direct-import model delivers better margins at scale, it could materially lift the net margin above its current 5% floor.
• Governance concentration: Voting power is heavily concentrated in the hands of one family group; any succession or ownership change would be a significant corporate event.
• Regulatory risk: Paraguay’s consumer protection authority (SEDECO) has sanctioned Electroban more than once for consumer data practices, a recurring operational risk for a credit-led retail model.

This is news, not investment advice.