Holcim Ecuador S.A.

What it is

Holcim Ecuador was incorporated on 9 March 1934, and its core business is the manufacture and sale of clinker, cement, and concrete — every hard material that goes into Ecuador’s roads, homes, and towers. With more than 90 years in the country, its distribution arms include Disensa, the largest construction-franchise network in Ecuador, and Geocycle, a waste-reuse subsidiary.

The company produces and sells Portland and hydraulic cement, concrete, and aggregates; its facilities span an integrated cement plant, a grinding station, seven concrete plants, and three aggregates plants, supported by fourteen regional sales offices nationwide. Holcim Ecuador holds roughly a 48% share of the domestic construction-materials market — nearly half the country’s supply.

Who owns it

The company is a member of the global Holcim Group and is 92.24% owned by Holcim Investments (Spain) SL, a holding vehicle of the Swiss-listed Holcim Ltd. The remaining shares trade on the Bolsa de Valores de Quito, giving local investors a small but meaningful free float of roughly 7.76%.

At the last reliably reported share price of $52.00 (August 2022), the company had approximately 20.5 million shares outstanding, implying a total market value of roughly $1.07 billion. No updated share-price data is publicly available for 2024–2025 in available sources.

Who runs it

Jorge Kury heads Holcim Ecuador’s senior leadership and appears consistently as the company’s top executive at public events, alongside Santiago Olarte Benavides and Juan Pablo Villalva on the leadership team. The company’s CFO and board chair are not disclosed by name in available public filings.

Women make up 50% of the company’s leadership committee, an unusual governance feature for a heavy-industry company in Latin America, and one the company publicises as a strategic commitment rather than a quota.

The money, in plain words

In 2024, Holcim Ecuador collected $317.0M in revenue — down 7% from the prior year — while its net profit came to $77.9M, down 18%, a tougher drop explained partly by Ecuador’s nationwide electricity shortage that disrupted cement production.

Even so, the business kept about 25 cents of profit from every dollar of sales — a net profit margin of 24.6% (our calculation), exceptional for a cement maker in any market. Shareholders’ equity at year-end stood at $379.4M, and the company paid out $28.6M in dividends, representing 30% of the year’s net profit.

For every dollar of owners’ equity, it earned about 20.5 cents — a return on equity of 20.5% (our calculation), strong for a capital-heavy manufacturer.

In 2025, the rebound was sharp: revenue jumped to $384.6M and net profit climbed to $84.9M, recovering well above the 2024 dip as Ecuador’s construction sector regained momentum.

What it is doing now

Between 2024 and 2025, the company invested $56.8M in total, directing 51.8% of that — about $29.4M — exclusively to green initiatives: low-carbon production, circular economy projects, and clean energy. The headline project, three years in development, aims to make Ecuador the first Holcim market globally to launch a cement based on calcined clays — a technology that significantly reduces CO₂ emissions in the production process.

More than 66% of Holcim Ecuador’s sales already come from low-carbon solutions, and the company has cut its carbon footprint measurably year after year. Its commercial network also expanded, adding more than 200 new Disensa franchises and opening new concrete plants at strategic locations across the country.

What to watch

• Calcined-clay cement launch. The global-first low-carbon cement product is the single biggest near-term catalyst; delays or cost overruns would pressure the investment case.
• Ecuador’s power grid. The electricity shortages that hit Ecuador in 2024 were the clearest operational risk the company faced; further grid instability would again squeeze production costs and volumes.
• Construction cycle. Better prospects for 2026 are already priced into management’s tone; if Ecuador’s broader economy stalls, cement demand — and Holcim’s 48% market share — will feel it first.
• Parent strategy. Global Holcim continues to reshape its portfolio; any change in how the Swiss parent allocates capital across its 45 markets could affect the Ecuador unit’s investment budget and dividend policy.

This is news, not investment advice.