Context: How Bolsas y Mercados Argentinos (BYMA) works, and what it makes issuers disclose · Argentina on the LatAm Power Map
It turns eggs into powder and liquid protein for some of the biggest food brands on earth — then ships most of it overseas. Ovoprot International built Latin America’s leading processed-egg business, then nearly lost it all in a debt crisis it is still climbing out of.
| Full name | Ovoprot International S.A. |
|---|---|
| Ticker / exchange | OVOP — Bolsa de Comercio de Buenos Aires (BCBA) |
| Headquarters | Cerrito 836, Piso 7, Buenos Aires, Argentina |
| Sector / industry | Consumer Non-Cyclicals — Food & Tobacco (processed egg products) |
| Employees | Not disclosed in available sources |
| Market value (market cap) | ARS 116,504,438 (~US$79,742 at 1 USD = 1,461 ARS) |
| Yearly sales (revenue) † | ARS 360,739,735 (~US$246,913 †) — 2016 only |
| Net profit † | ARS 10,310,894 (~US$7,057 †) — 2016 only |
| Net margin † | 2.9% (our calculation, 2016) |
| Return on equity † | 18.1% (our calculation, 2016) |
| Price-to-earnings (P/E) | Not available |
| Dividend yield | Not available |
| Website | ovoprot.com.ar |
† 2016 figures only; converting at today’s FX dramatically understates real 2016 purchasing power. No more recent structured financials are available.
What it is
Ovoprot International produces liquid egg and egg powder sold mainly as an ingredient inside well-known food brands. Its range covers whole-egg powder, heat-stable yolk powder for mayonnaise, high-whip egg-white powder, shell-free boiled eggs in brine, and fresh eggs for industrial processing, among others.
The Ovoprot concept was born in Austria in 1976; Argentine partners founded the local entity in 2001, began exporting in 2002, and grew it into the largest egg-product exporter in Argentina and Latin America. Four production plants operate in Buenos Aires province towns of Pilar and San Andrés de Giles, in Sauce Viejo (Santa Fe), and in San Luis.
Its main domestic buyers are large food manufacturers including Unilever, Arcor, Bimbo, Kraft, Nestlé, and Molinos Río de la Plata. Its export network reaches Austria, Egypt, Bosnia, Greece, Serbia, Romania, Spain, the Czech Republic, Portugal, Turkey, and others.
Who owns it
The Perea Amadeo family of Argentina holds 55% of the shares; Mateo Durañona y Vedia holds 10%; roughly 25% sits with investors in the financial system; and the remaining 10% belongs to an Austrian partner, a shareholder in Ovoprot Austria.
That Austrian entity — Ovoprot Egg Products Produktions- und Vermarktungs GmbH, based in Schlüßlberg, Upper Austria — is 100% owned by Maximilian Hörmanseder. The Perea Amadeo family’s 55% stake gives it clear control; the 25% in public hands is the effective free float.
Who runs it
Sebastián Perea, a member of the controlling family, has served as president of the board. A separate manager, Valeria Grasco, is listed as general manager (gerente), with Santiago Perea as director of projects.
No CFO is disclosed in available public sources.
The money, in plain words
The only audited figures in the structured data are from 2016. In that year Ovoprot kept about 3 cents of profit from every peso of sales — a net profit margin of 2.9% (our calculation), thin for a food processor.
Yet for every peso owners had invested, it earned about 18 centavos — a return on equity of 18.1% (our calculation) — because the business ran on relatively little equity capital.
The balance sheet at end-2016 showed ARS 56.9m (US$39 k) in shareholders’ equity against ARS 86.1m (US$59 k) in total liabilities — meaning creditors had roughly 1.5 times more stake in the assets than owners did, a moderately leveraged position. Cash stood at ARS 19.2m (US$13 k) with no debt figure separately disclosed in available structured data.
What happened next erased that picture: the company entered crisis in 2018 after buying a stake in the owner of Cresta Roja, the poultry business, which pushed it to the edge of default and forced a court-supervised debt restructuring. After nearly five years in that process, Ovoprot obtained court approval of its repayment plan from the Buenos Aires Commercial Court No. 2.
What it is doing now
Today Ovoprot holds roughly a 34% share of Argentina’s processed-egg market and exports account for close to 37% of its revenues. The company’s shares remain listed on the BCBA, though trading has been thin and the structured data carries no current earnings figures — a sign of how little investor-relations activity has followed the restructuring.
During its crisis years the Argentine securities regulator (CNV) flagged Ovoprot for failing to file required quarterly bond reports, and the Buenos Aires exchange suspended its share listing after the company applied to open insolvency proceedings. The path back to normal market standing is the company’s central unfinished task.
What to watch
- Financial disclosure: No income statement or balance sheet beyond 2016 is available in structured sources; resumption of regular reporting is the first signal of genuine recovery.
- Debt obligations: The court-approved repayment plan has creditor-committee oversight from Banco BTG Pactual and Banco Columbia, which will monitor compliance. Any missed payment restarts the clock.
- Export mix: With exports near 37% of sales, peso devaluation has a double edge — it lifts peso revenue from hard-currency sales but raises costs of imported inputs.
- Ownership stability: The Perea family holds control but a minority shareholder previously filed a formal complaint alleging the company refused to share financial information, a governance risk that lingers.
Sources
- EMIS — Ovoprot International S.A. Company Profile (Argentina)
- MarketScreener — Ovoprot International S.A. (OVOP:BCBA)
- El Sitio Avícola — Ovoprot concurso preventivo
- iProfesional — CNV investigation (Jan 2019)
- iProfesional — Ovoprot exits default (Feb 2024)
- Infocampo — Ovoprot shareholder structure and market position
- FirmenABC Austria — Ovoprot Egg Products GmbH (Hörmanseder ownership)
- BYMA — Ovoprot International S.A. listed-company page
- Market data: EODHD.
This is news, not investment advice.
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