Havanna Holding SA

What it is

Havanna Holding is the parent company of the Argentine confectionery and café brand Havanna — best known for its alfajores — founded in 1948 in the seaside city of Mar del Plata by Benjamín Sisterna, Demetrio Elíades, and Luis Sbaraglini. The holding company sells its caramel-filled biscuits and chocolate products through two channels: its own branded café-stores and a wholesale distribution arm.

By end-2024 Havanna had expanded its network to 480 points of sale, 266 in Argentina and 214 abroad. Subsidiaries operate franchise coffee shops in Brazil, Peru, Paraguay, Chile, Spain, and Bolivia, with distribution reaching the United States, Colombia, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Europe, Israel, and Australia.

Who owns it

Havanna is controlled by Grupo DyG, an Argentine investor group formed by Guillermo Stanley, Carlos Giovanelli, and Chrystian Colombo, who acquired the company from the Exxel Group in the early 2000s after Argentina’s 2001 economic crisis. The structured data shows institutional investors hold 54.1% of the free float, with no insider ownership reported in the public filing — suggesting the founders hold their stake through the private Grupo DyG vehicle rather than directly as “insiders” in the exchange database.

Havanna first listed its shares on the Buenos Aires stock exchange on 9 June 2016, under the symbol HAVA. The share class structure matters: there are 46,976,135 shares in total, of which 34,164,462 are Class A shares carrying five votes each, meaning the controlling group retains a firm grip on strategic decisions.

Who runs it

Carlos Giovanelli serves as President, one of the three original Grupo DyG partners. Board sessions are chaired by Chrystian G.

Colombo, also a founding partner. Investor-relations contact is Hernán Campagnoli, the company’s market-relations officer; no separate CFO title is disclosed in available sources.

The money, in plain words

Sales in FY2025 were ARS 157.9 billion (~US$108M), up just 1.8% in real terms from FY2024 but up 63% over two years from FY2023 — revenue growth of 63.2% over 2023–2025 (our calculation). The company keeps about 7.4 cents of profit from every peso of sales — a net profit margin of 7.4% (our calculation) — down sharply from 11% in FY2024 and 16% in FY2023, as rising costs squeezed earnings even while volumes grew.

For every peso shareholders own in the business, Havanna earns about 18.6 cents a year — a return on equity of 18.6%, respectable for a food-and-café operator. The market values the company at roughly 21.5 times its annual earnings (price-to-earnings ratio of 21.5×), a premium that reflects brand loyalty and the international growth story, though investors are paying up for a business whose margins are under pressure.

Net cash on the balance sheet was ARS 1.3 billion (~US$0.9M) at year-end 2025, with no long-term debt reported in the structured data (our calculation), though the company separately issued US$50M in bonds in early 2025 (see below).

What it is doing now

In February 2025, Havanna’s shareholders approved a global bond programme of up to US$50 million, aimed at replacing short-term peso debt with longer-term dollar financing. A new production plant in Spain was expected to begin operations in the second quarter of 2026.

As of the first quarter of 2026, Havanna operated 289 stores in Argentina — 16 more than a year earlier — and 256 abroad, a gain of 44 stores year-on-year, driven largely by new openings in Brazil. In April 2026 the board distributed ARS 13.2 billion (US$9 mn) in dividends, equivalent to ARS 281.6 (US$0.19)per share — a yield of roughly 6.5–7% at prevailing prices.

What to watch

• Margin recovery. Net margin fell from 16% to 7.4% in two years. Whether management can rebuild it as Argentina’s inflation stabilises is the central financial question.
• Spain plant ramp-up. The new European manufacturing base could cut logistics costs for the company’s growing Spanish and wider export business — or absorb capital with slow returns.
• Brazil expansion. With 44 new international stores opened in the past year, mostly in Brazil, execution risk is rising alongside opportunity.
• Governance concentration. Class A shares carry five votes each; Grupo DyG’s founders retain decisive control. Minority shareholders have limited power to push back on capital-allocation decisions.
• Argentina macro. All financials are reported in inflation-adjusted Argentine pesos; a peso devaluation or return of high inflation would compress US dollar-equivalent earnings rapidly.

This is news, not investment advice.