Industrias de Aceite S.A. (Fino)

What it is

Industrias de Aceite S.A. — known by its FINO brand — is a Bolivian food company that specialises in cooking oils, particularly those derived from soybeans. It is headquartered in Santa Cruz, with a large crushing plant in Warnes and a second facility in Cochabamba.

Following a shareholder vote in October 2024, the company spun off its entire consumer-goods division — detergents, pastas, toothpaste, packaged oils — into a separate entity called Industria y Comercio Aliconsumo S.A., completing the transfer in November 2024. Today IASA is a pure oilseed crusher: it buys soya and sunflower from Bolivian farmers, presses and refines the grain, and sells crude and refined oils plus protein meal, largely for export.

Who owns it

On 5 November 2024 the company was acquired by Grupo ASAI, a consortium of Bolivian business groups, under the leadership of Carlos Kempff as board chairman and Diego Moreno as CEO. ASAI Capital Holding Ltd. — the acquisition vehicle led by Carlos Kempff — groups together Hammer Partners, Martillos Assets, Ragtime Agriculture, Fairlane Stakes, Blue Shield Capital, 7SVC, La Boliviana Ciacruz, Aspen Valley, Jacos, and GB Inversiones.

Before that, the Grupo Romero of Peru held 62.7% of Alicorp S.A.A., which in turn owned IASA outright. IASA was originally founded in 1944 in Cochabamba by the Said family, who held it until the Romero group arrived in the 1980s.

In 2018, Alicorp acquired the company outright before selling the milling business to ASAI six years later. Free float on the equity is negligible; IASA’s main capital-market presence is through its listed bonds.

Who runs it

Diego Moreno serves as CEO and Carlos Kempff as president of the board. Moreno is a commercial engineer with 25 years of experience in agribusiness and holds an MBA in business administration.

No CFO name is disclosed in available public sources.

The money, in plain words

In the year to 31 March 2025, IASA kept roughly 4 cents of profit from every boliviano of sales — a net margin of 3.90%, modest for an industrial processor and down from 2.92% the prior year. Revenue shrank 36.7% year-on-year, and net profit fell 15.4% to Bs 150.3m (~$21.9m) — but the margin actually improved because the stripped-out consumer business carried heavier overheads.

The cushion came from foreign-exchange gains: IASA earns a preferential exchange rate as an exporter, which boosted profits even as operating results stayed under pressure. The operating margin was negative at –1.14%, as the milling business alone saw a 33% sales drop caused by poor summer and winter 2024 harvests that cut raw-material supply and depressed prices.

On the balance sheet, total assets fell 29.6% and total liabilities fell 32% versus March 2024, as bank debt of Bs 1,327.6m (~$194m) transferred out with the consumer spin-off, leaving primarily the listed bond obligations.

What it is doing now

In October 2024 the shareholder meeting also approved a new bond programme of Bs 350m and a commercial paper (short-term note) programme of up to Bs 200m — money earmarked to fund grain procurement for the next harvest campaign. “Our purpose is to broaden the agricultural frontier and make Bolivia a leading agro-exporter,” says board chair Kempff.

Moody’s Local Bolivia notes that from November 2024 the consumer-goods revenues no longer appear in IASA’s books at all, so future comparisons will reflect a much smaller but more focused company.

What to watch

• Harvest recovery. Milling revenues fell 33% to March 2025 because adverse climate cut the summer and winter 2024 soya and sunflower harvests, reducing both volume and prices. A return to normal crop years is the single biggest swing factor for earnings.
• Debt service. Debt-service coverage stood at only 0.80× as of June 2024 — meaning cash generated was not enough to cover scheduled repayments at that point. Bondholders should watch whether the improved spin-off economics and new financing restore this ratio above 1×.
• New ownership’s strategy. Carlos Kempff’s stated ambition is to turn Bolivia into a major agroexporter. Whether ASAI Capital invests in crushing capacity or simply manages the existing asset for cash will determine the company’s trajectory.
• Currency risk. IASA’s profits depend partly on a preferential exchange rate it accesses as an exporter. Any change to Bolivia’s foreign-currency framework would ripple directly into the bottom line.

This is news, not investment advice.