SALLUSTRO & CIA S.A.

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What it is

Sallustro y Cía. S.A. is an importer, agent, and distributor of international sports and casual brands.

The company, based in Asunción, offers a wide range of brands in clothing, footwear, and accessories.

Its supply chain draws primarily from Vietnam (88% of imports), India, Pakistan and Indonesia, spanning apparel, footwear, and leather goods. The brands it carries — including Converse, Hush Puppies, Under Armour, Aldo, Gap, Hering, and Topper — are household names across South America’s middle class.

The business sells through four channels: retail stores (66% of sales), wholesale (21%), franchises (12%), and an online shop (1%). The company has pursued a strategy of unifying its brands under the Sallustro identity, aiming to cut rental and logistics costs.

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Who owns it

The two principal shareholders are also the directors: Alberto Cayetano Sallustro holds 50.13% of the integrated capital, and Laura Ivonne Callizo de Sallustro holds 28.17%. Together they control roughly 78% of the company, leaving little free float.

The company is administered and led by its principal shareholder and founder, along with members of the Sallustro family through a second generation, who are redirecting strategy and adding new brand representations. The shareholders’ stated policy is generally not to distribute profits as dividends — earnings are reinvested, building up the equity base year by year.

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Who runs it

The board has five members — a president, vice-president, and three directors — almost all from the Sallustro family, with one external director added in 2016 to handle financial organisation; day-to-day operations are led by a general manager who reports directly to the board.

The specific names of the current chief executive and chief financial officer are not disclosed in available public sources. The founder and the other executives have extensive experience in the retail and wholesale segments for clothing, footwear, and accessories.

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The money, in plain words

The most recent audited accounts are for the year ended 31 December 2024, prepared by the firm Gestión Empresarial; the figures below are from the June 2025 risk-rating review which draws on those accounts. In the first half of 2025, the company billed Gs.

124,550M (~US$20.6M) — a small 1.2% rise in sales year-on-year, but profits fell sharply.

The company kept only about 1.9 cents of profit from every guaraní of sales in H1 2025 — a net profit margin of 1.9% (our calculation), well down from 7.4% two years earlier — as rising operating costs outpaced revenue growth. Total liabilities grew 4.75% to Gs.

147,634M (~US$24.4M, our calculation), while equity rose a more modest 3.37% to Gs. 112,670M (~US$18.6M, our calculation).

For every guaraní of equity, the company earned about 4.35 cents over the past year — a return on equity of 4.35%, down from a peak of 29% in mid-2022, reflecting the squeeze on margins. The leverage ratio (total debt divided by equity) edged up to 1.31 times, meaning the business still carries more equity than debt — a reasonably conservative structure.

Profit distributions have historically never exceeded 15% of net income; owners prefer to retain cash in the business.

Total assets reached Gs. 260,302M (~US$42.9M, our calculation) by June 2025, driven largely by a build-up in merchandise inventory.

That stockpile is both a strength — it supports sales — and a risk, since slow-moving inventory ties up cash.

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What it is doing now

The company has announced plans to expand and open new stores for ALDO, Converse, Hush Puppies, and Under Armour concept stores in shopping-centre extensions in Asunción. It is also pushing its multi-brand MOSS by Sallustro format — combining Converse, Hush Puppies, Call It Spring, Toms, and Gaston Luga — in key malls.

On the debt side, the third bond programme (PEG G3, maximum Gs. 20,000M) issued under CNV authorisation in December 2021 is nearing maturity, with the final Gs.

744M of Series 1 due in December 2025. That removes the bond obligation entirely, reducing debt-service pressure heading into 2026.

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What to watch

• Margin recovery. The net margin has fallen from ~7% to under 2% in two years; whether management can contain operating costs while growing sales is the central question for any bondholder or prospective lender.
• Inventory discipline. Inventory jumped nearly 19% in H1 2025, slowing the cash cycle. A misstep on seasonal buying in a price-sensitive market could force markdowns.
• Bond maturity and refinancing. The final PEG G3 series matures December 2025. How the company manages cash thereafter — and whether it taps the market again — will signal management’s confidence in free cash flow.
• Succession and governance. A second generation of the Sallustro family is already steering the company. Formalized governance structures and transparent shareholder agreements would reduce key-person risk as the business grows.
• Paraguay consumer environment. Demand for imported branded fashion is sensitive to purchasing power; any deterioration in real wages or a guaraní depreciation lifts import costs faster than prices can be raised.

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This is news, not investment advice.