Empresas Tricot S.A

What it is

Empresas Tricot is a Chilean clothing and fashion accessories retailer that focuses on the design and retail sale of apparel, footwear, and accessories through a chain of stores under the Tricot brand. It operates two chains — Tricot and Tricot Connect — and runs a financial arm through its subsidiary Tricot Financiero S.A., which issues the Tricot Visa credit card and extends cash loans to shoppers.

The company operates approximately 100 stores, all within Chile. The first Tricot store opened in 1955 in central Santiago, and by 1964 the company had begun its national expansion, opening in Arica.

Who owns it

The company is controlled by the four Pollak Ben-David siblings — Eduardo (who is also board chairman), Henry, Andrés, and Dalia — through Inversiones Retail Chile S.A. The family also participates through Sociedad de Inversiones Heads Corp SpA, which holds a further 13.2% of shares.

Insiders collectively hold 71.9% of shares, with institutional investors holding a further 27.4%, leaving a free float of less than 1% — meaning this is a tightly family-held company with very limited shares available for public trading. Tricot went public on the Santiago exchange on 4 August 2017.

Who runs it

Antonio Egidio Fontana is the Gerente General (CEO) of Empresas Tricot S.A., as disclosed in a November 2024 filing with Chile’s financial regulator, the CMF. The board consists of eight members, four of them independent, elected by shareholders.

The roles of board chairman and chief executive are explicitly separated under Tricot’s corporate governance rules. The CFO was not disclosed in available sources at the time of publication.

The money, in plain words

Sales have grown at double-digit rates for three consecutive years: up 10.1% in FY2024 and 13.2% in FY2025 (our calculations), reaching CLP 269.3bn (~$294.6M USD) in the latest full year. For every 100 pesos sold, the company keeps about 6.4 pesos as net profit — a net margin of 6.4% (TTM), which is lean but typical for value-clothing retail.

For every peso shareholders have put in, the business earns back roughly 12 cents a year — a return on equity of 11.9%, solid for a mid-market retailer. The balance sheet carries no disclosed financial debt, and the company holds CLP 47.0bn (~$51.4M USD) in cash — a net cash position (our calculation) that gives it meaningful room to grow.

At 15.7× earnings, the market is pricing in steady but not spectacular growth.

What it is doing now

In the first half of 2025, Tricot reported revenues of CLP 124.7bn (US$136 mn), up 10.9% year-on-year, with net profit rising 31.3% — driven by both the retail and financial segments. The retail segment faced headwinds from a weaker peso, which raised the cost of imported goods, and from disruptions in international logistics chains.

At the annual shareholder meeting in March 2025, Tricot adopted a policy of distributing 40% of annual profits as dividends, which would represent roughly CLP 8.0bn (~$8.7M USD) based on FY2025 net income — a shift that gives minority shareholders a more defined income claim going forward.

What to watch

• Credit-card arm: the financial segment issues the Tricot Visa, grants direct credit to customers both in-store and at associated businesses, and provides cash advances — a business that amplifies sales in good times but concentrates credit risk in downturns.
• FX exposure: Tricot sources much of its clothing from abroad; a weaker Chilean peso directly compresses margins without any natural hedge in the revenue line.
• Free-float thinness: With barely any shares in public hands, the stock can be illiquid — a structural discount that could narrow if the family ever sells down.
• Dividend track record: The 40%-of-profit payout policy is new; whether the family sustains it through a softer cycle is the first real test of minority-shareholder commitment.

This is news, not investment advice.