Laboratorios Richmond SACIF

What it is

Richmond is a Latin American pharmaceutical company listed on the Buenos Aires Stock Exchange, with its headquarters in the city and manufacturing plants in Pilar, Argentina, and Bogotá, Colombia. It also has commercial offices in Chile, Paraguay, and Mexico.

Its medicines cover four main areas: antiretroviral drugs for HIV; oncology and cancer-related treatments; heart and metabolic drugs, including those that lower blood pressure and cholesterol; and neurological and psychiatric drugs, from antidepressants to antiepileptics. The company sells these products across Latin America, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.

Who owns it

Since its stock-market listing in December 2017, 38.48% of the capital belongs to majority shareholder Marcelo Figueiras; 24.74% to Busnel S.A.; and 19.24% to Alberto D. Serventich — leaving 17.54% as freely traded shares on the Argentine stock market (BYMA).

The free float is thin: roughly 82 cents in every dollar of equity sits in the hands of the founding group.

Institutional investors hold about 8.9% of shares (EODHD data), with the remaining balance tightly concentrated in the controlling bloc. No state ownership is present.

Who runs it

Marcelo Figueiras — an Argentine businessman who graduated from the University of Buenos Aires in 1989 — serves as President of Laboratorios Richmond. He is both the controlling shareholder and the executive chairman, combining ownership and strategic direction in the same person.

Day-to-day operations are led by Pablo García Santillán, who became CEO after Juan Manuel Artola moved to the role of vice-president of the board. García Santillán brings more than 30 years of pharmaceutical industry experience, including seven years as general manager of Laboratorios IMA, a subsidiary of Brazilian group Cristália.

The money, in plain words

On a trailing twelve-month basis, Richmond earns about 14 cents of profit from every peso of sales — a net profit margin of 13.99%, solid for a mid-size generics maker selling into emerging markets. For every peso its owners have put in, it earns back about 16 centavos a year — a return on equity of 16.0%, respectable given Argentina’s notoriously volatile operating environment.

The stock trades at just 8.2 times earnings (a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.2×), a low multiple that likely reflects Argentina’s country risk rather than any weakness in the business itself. The company was incorporated on August 24, 1959, and revenue has grown from ARS 85 bn (US$58 mn) in FY2023 to ARS 127 bn (US$87 mn) in FY2025 — a 49% rise in local currency over two years (our calculation).

Richmond holds net cash of roughly ARS 10.8 bn (~US$7.4 m, our calculation; no debt reported in the balance sheet), giving it a clean financial footing.

What it is doing now

Richmond recently completed construction of a third manufacturing plant in Pilar, province of Buenos Aires, part of what the company calls “Proyecto VIDA” — a major expansion of its vaccine and biologics production capacity that wrapped up in 2024. The plan includes incorporating around 120 additional staff.

The company that manufactured the Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine in Argentina during the pandemic has now appointed a new CEO — Pablo García Santillán — to lead its next regional growth phase. The leadership transition, confirmed in September 2025, signals a shift from pandemic-era crisis management to long-term commercial expansion across Latin America and beyond.

What to watch

• Margin recovery: Net income in the most recent fiscal year (FY2025 per EODHD income_3yr) fell sharply versus FY2024. The TTM margin of 14% suggests some recovery is underway; whether it holds is the key earnings question.
• Thin float: With only 17.54% of shares freely traded, the stock can move sharply on modest volume — attractive for some investors, a liquidity risk for others.
• Argentina macro: All revenue and costs are peso-denominated; currency devaluation compresses dollar-equivalent earnings even when the business is growing in local-currency terms.
• New plant ramp-up: The Pilar expansion adds capacity for vaccines and biologics — higher-value, higher-margin products. How quickly it fills that capacity will drive the next growth leg.
• Export mix: Richmond started selling outside Argentina in 2006 and is now present in 28 countries, covering all of Central and South America as well as markets in Africa and the Middle East. Growing that share cushions peso risk.

This is news, not investment advice.