Pentágono, S.A. de C.V.

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What it is

Pentágono was incorporated in San Salvador in June 1998; it initially managed supermarkets and pharmacies operationally, but by 1999 had pivoted entirely to invoice factoring — buying the unpaid bills of small businesses so they get cash now rather than waiting for large buyers to pay later. Since 2018 it has broadened into working-capital loans and, from 2022, financial leasing, widening its income sources beyond pure factoring.

Pentágono specialises in factoring, with a track record of serving more than 1,100 clients; its core market is the formal micro, small and medium-sized businesses (MiPyMEs) that sell on credit to well-known, creditworthy buyers. By mid-2023, factoring still accounted for 77.81% of total intermediation income, with loans and leasing making up the rest.

On factoring transactions the company typically advances 85%–90% of the invoice’s face value and earns an average commission of about 1.88%; on working-capital loans the average annual interest rate runs to about 12.12%.

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Who owns it

Pentágono is a private company controlled by the Saca family of El Salvador. The 2024 annual report lists the shareholders’ assembly and board as including Ing.

Carlos Miguel Saca Silhy, Ing. Guillermo Saca, Lic.

Óscar Alberto Miranda Vega, Lic. Pedro Antonio Juárez Oliva, Ing.

Miguel Saca, and Lica. Janine de Saca.

Precise percentage shareholdings per individual are not disclosed in available sources.

The company is listed on the Bolsa de Valores de El Salvador purely as a debt issuer — it has sold bonds to institutional and retail investors, not shares; the equity remains entirely in private, family hands with no public free float.

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Who runs it

Guillermo Miguel Saca serves as Director Secretario of Pentágono and is one of the key voices of the business in public. Day-to-day operations are steered by a management team that includes a Gerente Financiero-Administrativo (Finance and Administration Manager) and a Gerente de IT y Riesgo (IT and Risk Manager), both of whom sit on the company’s risk and audit committees.

The names of the current chief executive and chief financial officer are not individually titled in available public filings.

Pentágono has been authorised as an intermediary financial institution by BANDESAL — El Salvador’s development bank — giving it access to the FIREMPRESA trust fund, which was created to support economic recovery for Salvadoran businesses. That government endorsement strengthens its funding base.

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The money, in plain words

Pentágono earns money on the gap between what it charges clients (commissions and interest) and what it pays to borrow the money it lends out. By mid-2023 that spread — the intermediation margin — was 70.3%, meaning it kept about 70 cents of every dollar of gross income after paying its own lenders.

For every dollar owners have put into the business it earned back about 8.2 cents a year — a return on equity of 8.2%, and for every dollar of total assets it earned 2.6 cents — a return on assets (ROA) of 2.6%.

The total loan book reached $12.2M by mid-2023, having grown nearly 66% in one year, driven by factoring (+38%), working-capital loans (+160%) and leasing (+228%). Overdue loans (past 121 days) fell to just 1.17% of the portfolio — a sign the company’s clients are paying on time.

The business is modestly leveraged: assets are 3.19 times equity, meaning roughly two-thirds of the book is funded by borrowed money, primarily the bonds it sells through the stock exchange at fixed rates of 6.5%–7.5%.

At end-2023, the legal reserve stood at $439,195, and shareholders received $451,711 in dividends during the year — a signal the company is profitable enough to reward its owners while building regulatory capital. Because Pentágono lists only bonds — not shares — there is no publicly traded share price, no price-to-earnings ratio, and no dividend yield in the conventional equity sense.

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What it is doing now

In January 2024, Pentágono placed Tramo 13 of its PBPENTA2 bond programme, raising $500,000 on the Bolsa de Valores de El Salvador. This continues a rolling programme of short-term bond issuances that fund new lending.

In 2023 the company had already launched three tranches under the second bond line (PENTA2), which was authorised by the Superintendencia del Sistema Financiero in January 2023 for up to $10 million.

The 2024 annual report signals a deliberate broadening beyond pure factoring, with Pentágono now presenting itself as a multi-product financial solutions provider targeting the growth and efficiency of MiPyMEs across El Salvador and Central America.

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What to watch

• Portfolio quality as the book grows. PCR flagged that the share of factoring receivables in the riskiest internal category jumped from 2.48% to 9.53% in the year to mid-2023; rapid growth can hide credit problems that surface later.
• Loan-loss reserves. The ratio of reserves to overdue loans fell below the company’s own policy minimum of 85%, reaching 83.8% at mid-2023. Any deterioration in client repayments would test this buffer quickly.
• Funding concentration. The bulk of the company’s borrowed money comes from its own bond issues on the BVES and lines from local and state banks; any freeze in that local market would squeeze the business fast.
• Expansion into leasing. Financial leasing is still a small fraction of the book; whether it scales without adding disproportionate risk is the new management question.
• Family governance. A Saca family board with no public equity float means outside shareholders have no formal voice; bond investors must rely entirely on disclosure to the SSF and BVES.

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This is news, not investment advice.