Fábrica Nacional de Cemento S.A.

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What it is

FANCESA’s corporate purpose is the production, industrialisation and commercialisation of cement — bagged and bulk — from a single integrated plant in Sucre, Bolivia’s constitutional capital and highland city. The company was founded on 29 January 1959 and remains the country’s oldest continuously operating cement manufacturer.

FANCESA has maintained its position over recent years as the leader in construction materials — cement, ready-mix concrete and complementary products — through quality and technological innovation. Its national market share stands at 18.85%, with dominance in its home department of Chuquisaca and a significant, if contested, presence in Santa Cruz.

Its business profile shows erosion in its market position, mainly in Santa Cruz where competition is commercially aggressive; it retains an important overall position, favourable production costs and plentiful raw materials, though its market diversification is thin and transport costs to its main market are a material burden.

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Who owns it

FANCESA’s entire share capital of 207,243 shares is divided equally among three Bolivian public institutions: the Autonomous Municipal Government of Sucre (33.33%), the University of San Francisco Xavier of Chuquisaca / USFX (33.33%), and the Autonomous Departmental Government of Chuquisaca (33.34%). There is no free float and no private or foreign investor holds a share today.

This was not always the case. The Bolivian government reverted by Supreme Decree the 33.34% stake that Sociedad Boliviana de Cemento (SOBOCE) — whose shareholder is businessman Samuel Doria Medina — held in FANCESA; the amount of compensation remains disputed, with SOBOCE demanding US$80 million; the nationalisation also affected SOBOCE’s Mexican partner, Chihuahua.

The result is a company that is formally a private joint-stock company yet functions entirely in the public sphere — a structural tension that analysts say has hampered decision-making for years.

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Who runs it

The current board is chaired by Lic. Néstor Guido Calvo Miranda, President of the Board of Directors, representing USFX.

The General Manager (CEO) is Ariel González. Both the chair and the chief executive are subject to frequent replacement as the three public co-owners rotate political appointees.

As of late June 2026, at least 70% of the directors and auditors — those representing the Gobernación and the Alcaldía — were set to be replaced at a shareholder meeting. The governor of Chuquisaca, Luis Ayllón, announced an open public call for professionals from Sucre to fill the directorial seats that correspond to the regional government, which holds 33.34% of the shares.

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The money, in plain words

The FANCESA group has closed three consecutive fiscal years in the red: losses of Bs 16 million in 2021, Bs 39 million in 2022, and Bs 49 million in 2023. At the given exchange rate of BOB 9.85 (US$1)per US dollar, those losses translate to roughly US$1.6m, US$4.0m, and US$5.0m respectively (our calculations).

The deficit at the group level in fiscal year 2023–2024 was driven by losses in FANCESA’s subsidiaries; the cement factory itself generated a profit. The subsidiary businesses — ready-mix concrete (Concretec) and metal fabrication (Sermisud/Sucremet) — are the drag.

Not published: full revenue, gross profit and total asset figures for FANCESA are not available in open-access online filings. The BBV publishes rating reports (from AESA Ratings and PCR) for FANCESA’s listed bonds, but these are behind login gates.

ASFI regulations require listed issuers to disclose audited annual statements (Ley del Mercado de Valores No. 1834 and ASFI circulars); the audited financial statements and Annual Report for fiscal year 2023–2024 were approved by the shareholders’ meeting in July 2024, but they were not available in open-access format on the BBV or ASFI portals at the time of writing. A credit-covenant breach adds urgency: preliminary financials to March 2024 showed FANCESA with a current ratio of 0.72, below the bond-covenant minimum of 0.80 that was set by a bondholders’ meeting in March 2023.

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What it is doing now

The governor of Chuquisaca has proposed expanding FANCESA’s national commercial presence through a co-management model with the central state, positioning the factory as a potential strategic partner for Bolivia’s two state cement plants, ECEBOL Oruro and ECEBOL Potosí. The plan has not been formally adopted.

Separately, the mayor of Sucre has prioritised reordering the legal department of FANCESA and its subsidiaries Concretec and Sermisud, citing outstanding multimillion-boliviano debts, the unresolved litigation against SOBOCE, and severe labour conflicts. FANCESA’s own website describes work on a restructuring plan; whether that plan survives the June 2026 board reshuffle is the open question.

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What to watch

• Boardroom stability. Three consecutive loss-making years have sharpened tensions between the three equal co-owners. FANCESA’s structural ambiguity — formally a joint-stock company, but with exclusively public owners — means decisions have often been late and politically driven rather than commercially led. A more professional board could change that; another political cycle would not.
• Subsidiary drag. The core cement plant is profitable; the subsidiaries are not. Whether Concretec and Sermisud are restructured or wound down will determine whether the group can return to positive earnings.
• Bond covenant compliance. With the current ratio below the 0.80 covenant floor, bondholders can demand early action. Watch for any renegotiation or default notice on FANCESA’s listed bonds.
• Disclosure quality. The auditors’ “salvedades” (qualifications) on the FY2023–2024 accounts and the absence of open-access financials remain a governance red flag. Corporate governance and financial information management present significant challenges that could affect the company’s credit rating.
• Santa Cruz competition. SOBOCE and Itacamba are fighting aggressively for Bolivia’s fastest-growing construction market. FANCESA’s single Sucre plant means high transport costs to the east; any expansion strategy there will be capital-intensive.

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This is news, not investment advice.