Holding Bursátil Regional S.A.

What it is

Nuam is the result of the first-ever multi-country emerging-market exchange merger in history, uniting the stock exchanges of Chile (Bolsa de Comercio de Santiago), Colombia (Bolsa de Valores de Colombia), and Peru (Grupo BVL) under one roof. The group spans 18 companies, nine of them subsidiaries, including the three stock exchanges plus two securities depositories (Deceval and Cavali) and two clearing houses (CCLV and CRCC).

Its infrastructure covers on-exchange and OTC markets for equities, fixed income, derivatives, and foreign exchange — and it sells services to issuers, traders, and back-office technology users. Strategic partnerships with Nasdaq (trading technology) and MSCI (regional indices) underpin its push to attract global investors.

Who owns it

The holding was structured with a 40/40/20 split, reflecting that Chile and Colombia each generate roughly equal revenues and both outweigh Peru. Insiders collectively hold about 60.7% and institutions a further 9.5%, leaving roughly 30% as free float — thinly traded by global standards.

B3, Brazil’s stock exchange, is noted as a significant shareholder across the three constituent exchanges, and analysts have flagged that B3 could, if it chose, bid for nuam to expand its regional footprint.

Who runs it

The CEO is Juan Pablo Córdoba, an economist from Universidad de los Andes (Colombia) with a PhD in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania, who serves as general manager of nuam. The board chair is Juan Andrés Camus, a Chilean, reflecting the co-equal weight of Chile in the ownership structure.

At the April 2025 Annual General Meeting, the board was slimmed from 16 to 11 members in line with the company’s bylaws — a sign that the post-merger governance is maturing.

The money, in plain words

Revenue in 2025 was CLP 151bn (~USD 167m), up 4.8% from CLP 144bn (US$159 mn) in 2024 (our calculation). The 2023 figure of CLP 21.8bn (US$24 mn) is not comparable — it captures only weeks of the merged entity’s life.

Nuam keeps about 21 cents of profit from every peso of sales — a net margin of 20.9% (our calculation), healthy for an exchange operator. For every peso owners have invested, it earns back about 7.5 cents a year — a return on equity of 7.5% — modest now but expected to rise as integration costs fade.

The balance sheet is clean: CLP 38.9bn (~USD 42.9m) of cash and no financial debt (our calculation), giving management room to invest in the shared technology platform without needing to borrow. At 15.9× earnings, the stock is priced roughly in line with mid-tier emerging-market exchange peers.

What it is doing now

Nuam has progressed toward a single trading platform jointly developed with Nasdaq, alongside MSCI partnerships for transparency. The company’s own site reported Q1 2026 operating revenue of CLP 40.7bn (US$45 mn), up 17% from Q1 2025, with net profit jumping 47% — its strongest quarterly result to date.

A new MSCI alliance for Santiago index calculation and distribution was announced in June 2026, taking effect September 2026.

Nuam already holds a 28% stake in the Bolivian stock exchange (through its Peruvian subsidiary) and a 6% stake in the Dominican Republic exchange (through its Chilean subsidiary), signalling appetite for broader Andean consolidation.

What to watch

• Single platform launch: moving all three markets onto one Nasdaq-built trading engine is the central operational task; delays would pressure costs and disappoint investors.
• Trading liquidity: the combined market serves 105 million people and USD 850bn of GDP, but has only 15% of Brazil’s trading liquidity — closing that gap is the core growth story.
• Free-float cleanup: the three constituent exchanges still have separate legacy listings with residual minority shareholders, and resolving these will simplify the capital structure and improve index eligibility.
• Return on equity trajectory: at 7.5%, ROE is below what the franchise could eventually earn; watch whether scale gains and cost cuts lift it toward double digits over the next two to three years.

This is news, not investment advice.