Eternit S.A

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What it is

Eternit is Brazil’s market leader in fibre-cement roofing sheets, and also makes cement, concrete, and plaster products as well as construction accessories. Its three operating lines are Fibre Cement, Chrysotile Mineral (a mine it still operates), and Concrete Roof Tiles.

The company was founded in 1940 in Osasco, São Paulo, originally as Eternit Brasil Cimento Amianto S.A. Its production plants span all regions of Brazil — Colombo in Paraná, Hortolândia in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and Simões Filho in Bahia.

Who owns it

The largest single shareholder is D+1 Fund, managed by BTG Pactual, with 26.7%; veteran retail investor Luiz Barsi Filho holds 5.62%, and Geração Futuro LPAR, the fund of billionaire Lírio Parisotto, holds 6.45%. There is no family or state controller: the company is widely held, with insiders collectively owning about 11% and institutions roughly 33% of shares (EODHD).

More than half the shares sit with individual retail investors — unusual for an industrial company and a sign that Eternit built its following during its dramatic recovery. There is no single block that commands outright control.

Who runs it

In March 2025, the board unanimously elected Rodrigo Angelo Inácio as the new chief executive, effective 15 April 2025; he stepped up from his previous role as Commercial Director, which he holds concurrently on an interim basis. Inácio holds a degree in Mechanical Engineering with postgraduate qualifications in Marketing and Finance, and brings more than 30 years of experience across business unit management, marketing, and sales.

The CFO and investor-relations officer is Carisa Portela Cristal, a senior finance executive with 30 years of experience, including more than 18 years in financial management, controlling, accounting, and taxation at companies including ISA Energia (CTEEP), Louis Dreyfus Commodities, and Valeo.

The money, in plain words

Revenue has barely moved over three years — R$1.13bn (US$219 mn) in 2023, R$1.16bn (US$225 mn) in 2024, R$1.15bn (US$223 mn) in 2025 (our calculation: roughly flat, +1.9% over the full period) — telling you the market is soft, not growing. Net profit recovered: R$127m (US$25 mn) in 2023 normalised sharply lower to R$39m (US$8 mn) in 2024, then edged back to R$49m (US$10 mn) in 2025 (EODHD), partly because a discontinued solar-tile product line cost R$17.1m (US$3 mn) in write-offs in 2024.

Eternit keeps about 4 cents of profit from every real of sales — a net margin of 4.2%, thin by industrial standards and well below the 11% it posted in 2023. For every real shareholders have put in, it earns roughly 3 cents a year — a return on equity of 3.1%, well short of what Brazilian investors can earn risk-free in government bonds.

The balance sheet shows net debt of R$156m (~US$30m, our calculation: cash of R$25m (US$5 mn) less gross debt of R$181m (US$35 mn)), a manageable but not trivial load for a company of this size.

At a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.9×, the market is pricing in either continued weakness or a lingering discount for the legal and regulatory risks described below. Shareholders who stayed through the restructuring have not been rewarded lately: the share has fallen about 15.6% over the past year.

What it is doing now

In August 2024, a court formally closed Eternit’s insolvency protection, ending a process that began in 2019 after the asbestos crisis. The company describes the court closure and the inauguration of a new plant in Caucaia, Ceará, as “historic milestones.” The new CEO took over in April 2025, signalling a shift from restructuring mode to growth mode.

The current product range runs from fibre-cement and concrete roofing panels to cement cladding panels, a prefabricated construction system (Pratic line), and accessories including adhesive tape and waterproofing membranes. The solar-tile experiment has been shelved, at least for now.

What to watch

• The chrysotile mine. In 2017, Brazil’s Supreme Court (STF) validated state laws restricting asbestos use, citing its proven cancer risk. Eternit still operates a chrysotile mine and has argued it can do so safely; a definitive STF ruling would remove the biggest cloud over the stock.
• Margin recovery. The net margin needs to return towards the double digits it posted in 2021–2023 for the return on equity to make sense versus Brazilian fixed-income rates above 10%.
• New CEO’s growth agenda. Management has flagged plans to expand the use of installed capacity and pursue new solar-energy products. Investors will watch whether Rodrigo Inácio converts those intentions into revenue.
• Debt cost. Eternit has been seeking roughly R$80m (US$16 mn) from Banco do Nordeste at lower rates to refinance more expensive debt — a deal that, if concluded, would directly lift the bottom line.

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This is news, not investment advice.