Context: How Bolsa de Valores de Quito works, and what it makes issuers disclose · Ecuador on the LatAm Power Map
For more than 80 years, a single company has put oil in Ecuador’s frying pans, soap beside its sinks and margarine on its bread. Industrias Ales is quiet, essential and fiercely local — and since 2020 it has a powerful new owner who is reshaping it from the inside out.
| Key Facts — Industrias Ales C.A. | |
|---|---|
| Full legal name | Industrias Ales C.A. |
| Tickers / exchanges | INDUSTRIASALES.EC — Bolsa de Valores de Guayaquil & Bolsa de Valores de Quito |
| Headquarters | Av. Galo Plaza Lasso N51-23, La Luz, Quito, Pichincha, Ecuador |
| Sector | Agro-industrial food manufacturing — edible oils, fats, soaps & cleaning products |
| Employees | 501–1,000 (2025, EMIS); ~822 confirmed at April 2020 bond filing |
| Market value (market cap) | Not published: Ales shares trade on both Ecuadorian exchanges but with very limited volume; no reliable market capitalisation is derivable from public price data. Capital social (paid-in capital) stands at $39.6 million. |
| Yearly sales (revenue) | Most recent audited figure: $152.6 million (FY2016, primary source: BVG bond-rating prospectus). A 2025 EMIS indicator shows sales growing 1.63% year-on-year in the latest period; ZoomInfo estimates current revenue in the $100–250 million range. Not published: the Superintendencia de Compañías (SCVS) holds annual filings under Ecuador’s Ley de Compañías art. 20, but audited income statements for 2020–2024 are not freely accessible online; the BVG renta-variable section holds only the 2019 audited PDF. |
| Net profit | Not published for recent years (see revenue note above). Historical context: net margin swung from a thin +1.5% (2015) to a small loss (2016) due to an earthquake that damaged the Manta plant. |
| Net margin | Not published for recent years. Historically 0%–2% — thin, typical for commodity food manufacturing. |
| Return on equity | Not published for recent years. |
| Price-to-earnings | Not calculable; no reliable market price data available. |
| Dividend yield | Not published in available sources. |
| Website | www.ales.com.ec |
What it is
Founded on 27 November 1943 in Ecuador, Industrias Ales is one of the country’s most significant agro-industrial companies and a leader in the production, distribution and marketing of food and cleaning products. It started life after acquiring from the government a small, old factory called BECO in the coastal city of Manta, originally making laundry soap, candles and shoe polish.
Its business today spans an industrial arm — producing refined oils, fats, margarinas and soaps in its Manta plant — and a commercial arm that distributes goods from global partners including Procter & Gamble, Carozzi, and Case agricultural machinery, under its own brand names Ales, Alesol, Duque de Alba, Dos Coronas and others. The company exports to Argentina, Peru, Cuba, the United States, Japan and Venezuela, among others.
The company’s cooking-oil brand Alesol is present in six out of every ten Ecuadorian households, according to a 2024 study. Industrias Ales has been ranked among Ecuador’s top 500 companies, reaching the Top 8 in a ranking published by Revista Vistazo.
Who owns it
The company was created in November 1943 by the brothers Antonio, Oswaldo and César Álvarez, together with José Espinosa — the name “Ales” combining the syllable “AL” from Álvarez and “ES” from Espinosa. For decades the Álvarez family ran it as a multi-generational Ecuadorian enterprise.
On 30 December 2020, María del Carmen Burneo Álvarez, then chair of the Ales board, announced to both exchanges the transfer of 10,684,347 shares — equivalent to 26.98% of paid-in capital — from a family trust to Holding Santa Ana S.A., which is made up of the shareholders of Corporación Superior and Inversiones Selecta. By April 2020 the bond-rating prospectus already noted that the company has a capital of $39.6 million divided among 773 shareholders, of which 766 each hold less than 2%.
The Holding Santa Ana/Corporación Superior group thereby became the single largest shareholder; the free float across the other 766-plus shareholders remains wide but thinly traded.
Who runs it
Not published: the names of the current chief executive and chief financial officer are not disclosed in any primary source available online — not in the BVG issuer filings, the 2019 audited financial statements, or the SCVS public portal. The company was constituted in Quito on 27 November 1943 before notary Carlos Alfredo Cobo.
The 2020 bond prospectus confirms that governance is led by a formal board — a president, five principal directors, five alternate directors and three external directors — with standing committees that set strategy and review controls. The SCVS requires listed companies to file annual governance reports under Ecuador’s securities regulations; those reports name directors but are not currently accessible in free-to-view form on the public portal.
The money, in plain words
Revenue swung widely in the years to 2016, from a peak of $214.6 million in 2013 down to $152.6 million by the end of 2016 — a 29% fall explained partly by the April 2016 earthquake that damaged the main Manta factory. The most recent directional data available, from EMIS, shows net revenue growing 1.63% in the latest period reported (2025 filing cycle) — a stabilisation after years of volatility, though the absolute dollar figure for 2020–2024 is not in the public domain.
Net margins have historically been razor-thin for this type of commodity food producer: the 2013–2016 window showed net margins ranging from a small profit of about 1.5% of sales to an outright loss when commodity shocks and a natural disaster hit simultaneously. That is common in edible-oils manufacturing worldwide, where raw material costs — here, crude palm oil — dominate the cost structure.
The company’s main raw material, crude palm oil, comes 75% from its related group of agricultural companies, Holding Palmaca — an integrated supply chain that cushions but does not eliminate commodity-price swings.
The balance sheet carries meaningful financial debt; the 2017–2019 bond prospectuses show total liabilities funding roughly 62% of assets, leaving about 38% equity — a leverage ratio (total liabilities to equity) of around 1.6 times, within the voluntary ceiling of 1.9 times the company set for bondholders. The company’s fourth bond issue, rated AA+ by Global Ratings, carried a ceiling of $15 million.
What it is doing now
Industrias Ales celebrated its 80th anniversary in 2023, marking the milestone with a public campaign. In 2024 the company confirmed its Alesol brand reaches six in ten Ecuadorian households, according to a market study.
The Corporación Superior group’s growing stake since 2020 has brought in new capital and strategic direction; the 2020 bond rating specifically cited the arrival of this “recognised, high-prestige group” as a principal support for the AA+ credit rating on its bonds.
The most recent EMIS financial indicator shows total assets falling 3.06% in the latest period, suggesting the company is continuing a deliberate strategy — noted as early as 2020 — of shedding lower-productivity assets to improve its short-term liquidity position. The company currently employs between 501 and 1,000 people (2025 data).
What to watch
- Ownership concentration: Holding Santa Ana/Corporación Superior disclosed ~30% as of April 2020 and was actively buying more. Any crossing of the 50% threshold would represent a de-facto change of control and may trigger regulatory disclosure obligations under Ecuadorian securities law.
- Financial transparency: Ales is listed on two exchanges but its post-2019 audited financials are not freely accessible online. If Corporación Superior continues its acquisition, pressure for consolidated reporting could increase.
- Palm-oil price risk: The raw material is a global commodity; a sustained rally in crude palm-oil prices — already volatile — directly squeezes margins that have historically hovered near zero.
- Manta plant resilience: The 2016 earthquake cost the company several percentage points of margin. Ecuador sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire; plant insurance and business-continuity planning remain material risk factors.
- Ecuador macro: Ecuador is dollarised, which removes currency risk, but its fiscal position and energy subsidies are under pressure; changes to fuel or electricity subsidies affect manufacturing costs directly.
Sources
- Bolsa de Valores de Guayaquil — Industrias Ales C.A. Audited Financial Statements (EEFF Auditados) FY2019, filed with BVG Renta Variable section
- Bolsa de Valores de Guayaquil — Global Ratings: Cuarta Emisión de Obligaciones INDUSTRIAS ALES C.A., rating report AA+, April 2020 (primary filing document)
- Industrias Ales C.A. corporate site — Class International Rating bond-rating executive summary (2017)
- Bolsa de Valores de Guayaquil — Issuer page: Industrias Ales C.A.
- Industrias Ales C.A. official website — “Quiénes Somos” (About Us)
- EMIS — Industrias Ales C.A. company profile (directional financial indicators, 2025)
- Market data: EODHD (no financials available for this issuer; all figures sourced directly from primary documents above).
This is news, not investment advice.
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