GRUPO VÁZQUEZ S.A.E.

What it is

Grupo Vázquez SAE is a holding company spread across five business lines: financial services, technology, retail, agribusiness, and real estate. It owns stakes in twenty-plus companies and employs more than 4,400 people.

The portfolio spans financial investments, payments technology, software, home-appliance retail, information and communications technology, livestock, gastronomy, and entertainment. The group’s crown jewel today is its financial and fintech cluster, anchored by Ueno Bank — Paraguay’s first fully digital bank.

The story began in 1945 with a small personal-lending stall in Asunción’s Municipal Market No. 4. In 2020 the family consolidated all its commercial activities and investments under the single Grupo Vázquez SAE structure, centralising management across all business units.

Who owns it

Federico Miguel Vázquez is the majority shareholder, holding 76.03% of the company, giving him decisive control over all major strategic and operational decisions. The remaining 23.97% is distributed among minority shareholders.

Shares are held subject to a lifelong usufruct in favour of Víctor Hugo Vázquez, Gladys Lía Muniagurria de Vázquez, and Gloria Elizabeth Villasanti Fariña — the founding generation’s legal claim on economic benefits, even as formal ownership sits with Federico Miguel. The free float of equity shares is effectively zero; the only publicly traded instruments are corporate bonds.

Who runs it

Federico Miguel Vázquez serves as President of Grupo Vázquez and also as Vice-President and CEO of Ueno Bank; he specialised in Finance, Business Management, and Digital Transformation at INCAE.

The board delegates day-to-day operations to an executive team led by a General Manager, who is responsible for implementing strategy, policies, and controls across all units. Cecilia Elizeche holds the General Manager role.

A separate Administrative and Financial Manager oversees the group’s financial reporting.

The money, in plain words

The standout number for 2024 is net profit: it jumped from Gs. 295,098 million in 2023 to Gs.

1,352,328 million — a near-fivefold rise — driving the return on equity sharply higher. The rating agency’s separate figure for the holding company alone puts net profit at Gs.

1,496,578 million (≈ US$247.4m), a net margin of 65% (our calculation) — exceptional by any standard, but explained by what drove it.

About 70% of 2024 revenue was non-cash: the book value of the group’s stakes in associates — chiefly Ueno Bank, ITTI, and U Holdings in Luxembourg — rose sharply after the Visión Banco absorption, and accounting rules required that gain to flow through the income statement. Return on equity climbed from 34.69% (2023) to 52.05% on one measure, and to 315.90% on the standalone holding calculation, reflecting the scale of those revaluation gains.

Strip out the revaluation, and the underlying operating business is smaller but still growing fast.

Assets grew 178% to Gs. 3,322,740 million (≈ US$549.2m), while the leverage ratio — debt divided by equity — actually fell from 1.44 to 0.69, meaning owners now fund more of the business than creditors do.

The group’s bond programme carries a pyA rating with a Fuerte (+) — “Strong Positive” — trend, assigned by Solventa & Riskmetrica in May 2025.

What it is doing now

The single biggest move in 2025 is a merger by absorption: Grupo Vázquez called an Extraordinary General Assembly in May 2025 to absorb Ueno Holding S.A.E.C.A. into itself, acting as the surviving entity.

The merger simplifies a structure where the group had been building its financial empire through a chain of holding layers.

At the end of 2025, Ueno Bank announced the entry of OTP Bank, an international financial group, as a new shareholder — the first major outside investor in the group’s financial cluster. Separately, the board approved a new dollar-denominated bond programme (PEG USD3) for up to US$25 million, with proceeds earmarked between 10–80% for debt refinancing and 20–90% for acquiring stakes in other companies.

What to watch

• Revaluation cliff. Most of 2024’s headline profit was a one-off accounting gain. Watch whether 2025 cash earnings — dividends and fees from associates — grow enough to sustain the group’s bond repayment schedule without fresh borrowing.
• Ueno Bank’s regulatory standing. Ueno Bank received an exceptional regulatory dispensation to spread over 20 years the transition costs from its absorption of Visión Banco — a benefit no other Paraguayan bank holds. Any change in that dispensation would hit reported profits.
• OTP Bank partnership. U Paraguay S.A., a company owned by U Holdings SARL in Luxembourg, in which Grupo Vázquez holds 90.01%, controls 91.21% of Ueno Bank’s capital. How OTP Bank’s stake fits within that chain — and what governance rights it carries — will shape the group’s next phase.
• Absorption completion. The merger with Ueno Holding is formally in progress; once done, the consolidated balance sheet and public disclosures will change materially.

This is news, not investment advice.