Grupo BVL S.A. Class A

What it is

Formerly known as Bolsa de Valores de Lima S.A.A., the company changed its name to Grupo BVL S.A.A. in June 2021, reorganising from a single exchange into a holding group that sits above two main operating businesses.

The group offers stock-market trading, clearing and settlement, securities brokerage, digital services, and consulting, and also facilitates the trading of duly registered securities; it manages the registration, clearing, settlement, and custody of securities — in short, it is the pipes and the plumbing of Peru’s capital markets, not a bank or broker.

The company traces its roots to 1860, making it one of the oldest financial institutions in South America, though the current holding-company structure dates to 2021.

Who owns it

nuam Internacional SpA, a Chilean entity incorporated in 2023, owns 92.37% of Grupo BVL S.A.A.; nuam Internacional is itself a subsidiary of Holding Bursátil Regional S.A. — meaning ultimate control lies with the regional exchange holding that also controls the Santiago and Colombian exchanges.

In July 2024, Holding Bursátil Regional S.A. completed a formal tender offer on Grupo BVL shares, increasing its stake by a further 0.23%. Public shareholders — the free float — hold the remaining roughly 7.6%, and the shares trade on the very exchange the company owns.

Who runs it

The Board of Grupo BVL is chaired by Rafael Óscar Pedro Carranza Jahnsen, who also holds the presidency of the Bolsa de Valores de Lima (BVL) itself. Mercedes Rosalba Aráoz Fernández leads Cavali, the clearing and settlement subsidiary.

The day-to-day operations of the BVL subsidiary are led by General Manager Miguel Ángel Zapatero Alba, who holds an MBA from the University of California, Berkeley. The CEO of the parent holding, nuam, is Juan Pablo Córdoba.

The money, in plain words

At the parent-company level, Grupo BVL reported operating revenues of S/ 17.6 million (~US$5.2 M) for 2024, while operating costs fell by S/ 6.9 million (US$2 mn) — a 27.3% cut compared with 2023. The parent is a lean holding entity; the real economic scale lives inside its subsidiaries and, ultimately, in the nuam group.

At the consolidated group level, nuam — of which Grupo BVL is the Peruvian arm — reported full-year 2024 revenues of US$147.6 million, 13% higher than 2023. Net profit for the nuam group reached US$38.1 million, a 22% rise, at a net margin of 26%.

That 26-cent-in-every-dollar profit rate is high for an exchange business, reflecting the fixed-cost nature of market infrastructure.

At the Grupo BVL parent level, current assets stood at S/ 15.99 million (US$5 mn) and non-current assets at S/ 213.25 million (US$63 mn), against current liabilities of S/ 7.21 million (US$2 mn) and non-current liabilities of S/ 16.72 million (US$5 mn) — implying net assets of roughly S/ 205 million (~US$60 M) and a balance sheet that carries very little debt relative to its asset base (our calculation). The shares trade at roughly 15x trailing earnings — a price-to-earnings ratio of ~15x — and yield 6.09% in dividends, making it unusual among exchange stocks globally for its income rather than growth appeal.

What it is doing now

In 2024, nuam — the holding of which Grupo BVL has been part since November 2023 — completed its first full year of operation, pressing ahead with the integration of the market infrastructures of Chile, Colombia, and Peru into a single regional market.

Key alliances sealed in 2024 include Nasdaq as technology infrastructure provider, MSCI for a new regional index, and agreements with Equinix, Devexperts, and Vermiculus. Meanwhile, a record 87,083 new individual investor accounts were opened on the BVL in 2024, 535% more than in 2023, suggesting the retail broadening of Peru’s market is gaining real momentum.

What to watch

• Single-platform launch. nuam’s shares are already listed in Chile, Colombia, and Peru; the unified trading platform — where a single screen shows all three markets — is the next concrete milestone, expected to begin rolling out in 2025–26.
• Retail investor durability. 80% of the new 2024 investors were under 40 years old; whether they stay active in a thinner market is the key test for BVL’s trading-fee income.
• Dividend sustainability. nuam raised its payout ratio to 70% of net profit for 2025, up from 50% the prior year — generous, but it leaves less capital to fund the regional technology build-out.
• Thin free float. With roughly 7.6% of shares publicly traded, GBVLAC1 is illiquid by global standards; even small buy or sell orders can move the price sharply, which amplifies both gains and losses for minority holders.

This is news, not investment advice.