Industrias de Aceite S.A.

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What it is

Industrias de Aceite S.A. is a leading Bolivian company producing and selling oils, fats, margarines and bar soaps, and one of the country’s largest exporters of bottled oils, soybean flour and crude soybean and sunflower oils. Its consumer brand, FINO, is Bolivia’s most recognised edible-oil name.

IASA was founded in Cochabamba in 1944 by the Said family with the original aim of processing cotton; in 1954 it launched Bolivia’s first domestically made cooking oil, FINO, directly displacing imports. Today it operates from its Santa Cruz headquarters with industrial plants in Warnes and Cochabamba.

Who owns it

On 4 November 2024, IASA registered the transfer of 100% of its shares to ASAI Capital Holdings Ltd. ASAI Capital Holding is a Bolivian company created specifically to acquire IASA; it groups prominent national entrepreneurs and is led by Carlos Kempff, and includes Hammer Partners, Martillos Assets, Ragtime Agriculture, Fairlane Stakes, Blue Shield Capital, 7SVC, La Boliviana Ciacruz, Aspen Valley, Jacos and GB Inversiones.

The transaction — covering IASA in Bolivia plus related milling operations in Peru and Uruguay — was valued at $172.8 million, subject to future adjustments. Before that, in 2018–2019 IASA had been acquired by Peruvian consumer-goods group Alicorp S.A.A.

following a merger with ADM subsidiary SAO. No free float of equity shares exists; IASA raises public capital through listed bonds, not shares.

Who runs it

Under the new ownership, Carlos Kempff serves as chairman of the board and Diego Moreno as CEO. Moreno previously served as Alicorp’s director for Bolivia and its milling business, giving him deep institutional knowledge of the very operations he now runs outright.

In August 2024, IASA restructured its management hierarchy and named Diego Moreno Menezes as Director of the Milling Business and Paulo Alfonso Vásquez Monllor as Manufacturing and Engineering Manager. A separate CFO or finance director is not disclosed in available sources.

The money, in plain words

In the twelve months to December 2024, IASA earned a net profit of Bs 162.1 million (~$16.5m USD), up from Bs 129.3 million a year earlier, with a net profit margin — the share of each boliviano of sales kept as profit — rising to 4.98% from 2.51%. That improvement came mainly from foreign-exchange gains (IASA earns dollars as an exporter at a time when Bolivia’s official exchange rate delivers a premium) and from lower interest costs after debt was cut.

Despite those gains at the bottom line, the gross margin — what it keeps after paying for raw materials — actually fell to 6.89% from 7.72%, and the operating margin compressed to 1.52% from 3.45%, signalling that the core grain-crushing business earns thin returns and is sensitive to soy and sunflower commodity prices. Full-year 2024 sales also fell 36.9% year-on-year as the company shed its consumer-staples division and as both summer and winter soybean harvests suffered weather damage.

The ratio of total financial debt to annual operating profit (the leverage measure investors use to gauge repayment capacity) improved to 5.04 times from 7.89 times, as the spin-off transferred a large slug of bank debt out of IASA’s balance sheet. The company funds itself primarily through listed bonds — it has several series outstanding on the BBV — rather than equity.

What it is doing now

In October 2024 shareholders approved a new programme to issue up to Bs 350 million in bonds and up to Bs 200 million in short-term commercial paper, giving IASA fresh runway to refinance and fund working capital in its now-smaller, milling-only form. The new chairman, Carlos Kempff, has framed the group’s ambition bluntly: to make Bolivia a leading agroexport nation.

IASA’s position as an exporter of raw grains, crude oils and flours — generating revenue in US dollars — is a genuine competitive edge in a country facing a shortage of hard currency. In the first quarter of 2025, revenue fell 36.7% year-on-year because the spun-off consumer business is no longer in the figures; net profit fell a milder 15.4%, reaching Bs 150.3 million.

What to watch

• Harvest risk. Volatility in soybean and sunflower commodity prices directly affects IASA’s ability to generate operating profit. Two bad harvests in a row (summer and winter 2024) already squeezed the milling business.
• Currency paradox. IASA prices raw materials in local currency but depends on dollar reserves to service debt, creating a coverage risk if Bolivia’s exchange-rate premium narrows.
• Debt servicing. As of late 2024, IASA’s operating cash flow covered its debt service only 0.49 times — meaning it was not generating enough cash from operations alone to meet interest and principal payments. The new bond programme aims to fix that by lengthening maturities.
• Integration of new ownership. ASAI Capital Holdings is a consortium of ten partners from different industries; how effectively they coordinate strategy — and whether Moody’s Local Bolivia upgrades IASA’s AA-.bo credit rating — will signal whether the buyout thesis is working.

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This is news, not investment advice.