Loma Negra Compania Industrial Argentina SA

What it is

Loma Negra is Argentina’s leading maker of cement, concrete, and lime. Over its 95-year history it has built Argentina’s sole nationwide, vertically-integrated cement and concrete business, supported by top-of-mind brands and long-term customer relationships.

The company holds around 45% of cement sales in Argentina, which makes it the kind of business that is almost impossible to replicate: cement is heavy, transport costs are prohibitive, and its plants and limestone reserves took a century to accumulate. It also owns the Ferrosur Roca railway line, acquired in 1992, which it uses to ship its own bulk products — a structural cost advantage no rival can easily copy.

Who owns it

The direct controlling shareholder is InterCement Trading e Inversiones Argentina, S.L., which holds 52.14% of voting shares. However, ownership of that parent company changed entirely in April 2026.

Following the implementation of a court-approved judicial reorganisation plan on April 6, 2026, Intercement Participações approved a capital increase of about R$2.82 billion (US$2 mn), issuing more than 1.28 billion new shares subscribed by creditors who chose equity as payment, while former ultimate controller Mover Participações saw all its shares cancelled.

According to Loma Negra’s filing with Argentina’s securities regulator, the new principal shareholders of Intercement are Latcem LLC (38.7%), led by Marcelo Mindlin of Pampa Energía, Redwood Capital Management (26.7%), and Moneda Patria Investments (24%). The transaction returns control of Loma Negra to Argentine ownership after two decades under Brazilian control.

Capital Research and Management Company holds about 6.4% and Argentina’s Social Security Administration about 5.3% of Loma Negra’s shares.

Who runs it

CEO is Sergio Faifman, who is also Vice President of the Board of Directors; CFO is Marcos Gradin. Faifman has been a board member since August 2012 and has served as CEO since November 2016.

Following the April 2026 ownership change, Marcos Marcelo Mindlin was installed as Board President, with Faifman continuing as Vice President and CEO. CFO Marcos Gradin has held the role since March 2016.

The money, in plain words

Loma Negra keeps roughly 4 cents of profit from every peso of sales — a net profit margin of 4.25% — and that thin margin tells most of the story of 2025. Argentina’s consumer prices rose 31.5% in 2025, down sharply from 117.8% in 2024 and 211.4% in 2023, which means the ARS figures in the income statement are stated in constant, inflation-adjusted currency, making year-on-year comparisons more honest but still punishing: revenue fell from ARS 919 billion (US$629 mn) in FY2024 to ARS 848 billion (US$580 mn) in FY2025 (our calculation), a real-terms decline of about 8%.

For every peso owners have put in, the business earns about 3.4 cents a year — a return on equity of 3.38%, well below what Argentine inflation erodes. The market still prices the shares at 57.4 times earnings (price-to-earnings of 57.4×), a high multiple that reflects not the current profit but the bet that Argentine construction recovers.

The company’s own annual filing flags a risk that the judicial reorganisation of its indirect parent could result in further changes in control and governance.

What it is doing now

The new controlling shareholders injected $110 million of fresh capital into InterCement at the April 2026 handover, earmarked for maintenance, investment plans, and operational efficiency. Loma Negra’s Q4 2025 earnings call, held in late April 2026, showed revenue and margins declined for the year but management pointed to operational actions as support for a 2026 recovery.

The trajectory of cement demand in the first half of 2026 will largely depend on the evolution of state expenditures for public works projects. No dividend has been declared for the current period.

What to watch

• New ownership strategy: The objective of the Mindlin-led group is to consolidate and expand the cement business; Mindlin intends to combine Loma Negra’s operations with SACDE, one of Argentina’s largest construction companies, rather than folding it into Pampa Energía.
• Demand recovery: Argentina’s cement market runs in cycles of six to eight years; the country has gone through three such cycles in the past two decades. A turn in the public-works budget is the single clearest trigger for higher volumes and better margins.
• Inflation and FX: All financials are restated under IAS 29 hyperinflationary accounting, and the peso depreciated 41.3% against the dollar in 2025. Any further devaluation compresses dollar-equivalent earnings even if peso revenues hold.
• Further governance change: A potential marketing and sale process for the controlling stake in Loma Negra remains an explicit risk disclosed in the company’s own SEC filing.

This is news, not investment advice.