Grupo Rotoplas SAB de CV

What it is

Rotoplas is the Americas’ leading provider of water solutions — tanks, pipes, purifiers, treatment plants — with 18 manufacturing plants across 14 countries and 27 product lines. It is a Mexican multinational based in Miguel Hidalgo, Mexico City, present in 13 Latin American countries and the United States.

The business has two halves: an “Individual Solutions” segment (tanks, cisterns, household water products sold through distributors) and a “Comprehensive Solutions” segment (designed systems, treatment plants, and growing services such as Bebbia, its subscription water-purifier brand). Service sales — the faster-growing, recurring piece — rose 16.7% in Q2 2025, driven mainly by Bebbia.

Who owns it

The largest single shareholder is CEO Carlos Rojas Aboumrad, with roughly 21% of shares outstanding; Carlos Roberto Mota Velasco holds about 12% and fund manager Operadora de Fondos GBM a further 5%. The founding Rojas family therefore controls the strategic agenda, with founding chairman Carlos Rojas Mota Velasco serving as co-founder, Executive President, and Chairman of the Board.

The general public holds about 48% of the company, and institutional investors — pension funds, asset managers — account for a further 53% of the register on the EODHD data, meaning some ownership overlaps with the public float. No state ownership or foreign strategic block has been disclosed.

Who runs it

Carlos Rojas Aboumrad joined Rotoplas in 2004 through the company’s graduate programme, became Chief New Business Officer in 2014, and has been CEO since May 2019. He is the founder’s son, giving the top job a clear family-succession character.

The CFO is Andrés Pliego, who presents quarterly results alongside the CEO.

The money, in plain words

Revenue has fallen in each of the past two years — from MXN 12.15bn (~US$701m) in 2023 to MXN 10.69bn (~US$617m) in 2025, a decline of 12.0% over two years (our calculation). The company keeps only about 0.04 cents of profit from every peso of sales — a net profit margin of 0.43% on a trailing basis — and earns less than 1 cent per peso that shareholders have invested, a return on equity of just 0.77%; both figures are very thin for an industrial company with this scale.

For every peso of sales, however, the gross profit line — what is left after making the product — is far healthier: MXN 4.46bn (US$257 mn) against MXN 10.69bn (US$617 mn) revenue in 2025, implying a gross margin of about 41.7% (our calculation), meaning the underlying product economics remain sound. The damage happens lower down, in interest costs on the company’s debt load: the comprehensive financing charge in the first half of 2025 alone was MXN 271m (US$16 mn), including MXN 278m (US$16 mn) in interest, commissions, and lease costs.

At 63× earnings, the price-to-earnings ratio reflects investors pricing in an eventual recovery, not the near-zero profits of today.

What it is doing now

Q4 2025 brought the clearest sign of a turn: operating profit reached MXN 161m (US$9 mn) and net income was MXN 91m (US$5 mn), against negative results in Q4 2024. For the full year 2025, however, net profit was only MXN 12.8m (~US$741k) — essentially breakeven.

The most recent Q1 2026 update showed net sales growing 1% year-over-year, with double-digit expansion in operating profit and improved cash flow driven by disciplined cost control.

Rotoplas was awarded an “A” rating — the top score — in CDP’s 2025 Climate Change assessment, a distinction given to just 4% of the 22,100 companies assessed worldwide and to only two companies in Mexico. On the social side, its “Escuelas con Agua” programme, run in partnership with the Coca-Cola bottling system and Isla Urbana, installed 1,032 IoT-enabled rainwater harvesting systems in schools by end-2025, reaching more than 332,000 students.

What to watch

• Debt reduction. Interest costs are the primary reason profits have collapsed. The pace at which the company cuts its borrowings will determine whether the margin recovery that began in Q4 2025 holds.
• Mexico demand. The US market is Rotoplas’s strongest performer right now, while Mexico — its biggest single market — is facing headwinds with declining sales. A rebound in Mexican construction and household spending is the single largest swing factor.
• Services growth. Bebbia and water-treatment contracts are higher-margin and recurring; their share of revenue is still only about 10%. Whether that grows fast enough to change the profit mix is the medium-term story.
• Family governance. With the founder’s son as CEO and the founding family holding the largest blocks, minority shareholders depend on the board’s independent directors to keep discipline on capital allocation.

This is news, not investment advice.