Context: How Bolsa de Valores de Asuncion works, and what it makes issuers disclose · Paraguay on the LatAm Power Map
In 1991, an architect and an engineer started building houses in a Paraguay barely open to the world. Thirty-four years on, Salum & Wenz is one of the country’s most-recognised construction companies — and it now raises money from the public through Paraguay’s own stock exchange.
| Full name | Salum & Wenz S.A. |
|---|---|
| Ticker / exchange | SWE (bonds: SWE.G1, SWE.G2, SWE.G3) — Bolsa de Valores de Asunción (BVA) |
| Headquarters | Asunción, Paraguay — Edificio Atlas Center, Piso 6, Quesada Nº 4926 |
| Sector | Construction & civil engineering |
| Employees | ~160 (May 2025) |
| Market value (market cap) | Not applicable — equity not listed; debt instruments only |
| Yearly sales (revenue) — 2022–2024 avg. | Gs. 133,138M (~$21.97M) — 3-year average per rating report |
| Net profit (Q1 2025, annualised) | Gs. 1,538M (~$254K) for the quarter; net margin: 3.63% |
| Total assets (Mar 2025) | Gs. 89,954M (~$14.84M) |
| Net equity (Mar 2025) | Gs. 31,394M (~$5.18M) |
| Return on equity (ROE) | 20.61% (Q1 2025, per rating report) |
| Bond rating | pyBBB+ / Stable (Solventa & Riskmétrica, March 2025) |
| Dividend yield / P-E ratio | Not applicable — no listed equity |
| Website | salum-wenz.com.py |
What it is
Dedicated to construction since 1991, Salum & Wenz was created by Architect Edgar Salum and Engineer Carlos Wenz as a small residential builder, and has grown into a full-spectrum civil contractor handling corporate offices, hotels, housing blocks, factories, and logistics centres. It has become one of Paraguay’s principal references in sustainable construction, civil works, corporate and residential buildings, logistics and industrial facilities, supermarkets and service stations.
Today the firm operates with more than 160 staff, simultaneous projects, and offices in several regions of the country. Its credit-rating report lists 15 projects under construction at the time of the March 2025 review, concentrated in Asunción but extending to industrial sites in the greater Central department.
Who owns it
The company’s two founding directors remain at the helm: Architect Edgar E. Salum Pires and Engineer Carlos A.
Wenz Pallares. A third director, César Urdapilleta, also sits on the board alongside the two founders.
Exact ownership percentages are not disclosed in available sources; the company is family-controlled and privately held, accessing capital markets solely through listed bond programmes rather than through a public share offering.
Who runs it
Engineer Robertino Ruffinelli leads the general management (CEO equivalent) of Salum & Wenz, with a strategic road map centred on four pillars, with sustainability at the core. The two founders, Edgar Salum and Carlos Wenz, remain active as directors of the company.
In 2017 the firm began a formal professionalisation drive, bringing in an external consultant, building a strategic management layer, and implementing ISO 9001 quality certification. A CFO equivalent is not named in available public sources.
The money, in plain words
Revenue has roughly doubled between the 2016–2021 period and the 2022–2024 period: the rating report puts the three-year average annual sales at Gs. 133,138M (~$21.97M, our calculation from report data).
In the first quarter of 2025 alone, sales hit Gs. 42,424M (~$7.0M) — up 61.65% on the same period a year earlier — as large construction contracts were billed through.
Margins are thin, which is normal for a contractor that manages expensive subcontractor chains: audited financials to 31 December 2024 were prepared by Russell Bedford Paraguay, and the March 2025 rating report records a net profit margin of 3.63% on Q1 revenues — meaning roughly 3.6 cents of profit kept from every guaraní billed. The return on equity (how much profit the owners earn on their own money in the business) surged to 20.61% in Q1 2025, from near-zero a year earlier, driven by the jump in billings.
The balance sheet tells a more cautious story. Total assets reached Gs.
89,954M (~$14.84M) by March 2025, but total debt (what the company owes) was Gs. 58,560M (~$9.66M) against an equity base of Gs.
31,394M (~$5.18M) — a leverage ratio of 1.87, meaning the company owes roughly twice what its owners have put in. Most of the debt is short-term trade payables and client advances, consistent with how construction billing works, but the rating agency flags it as the main risk.
What it is doing now
The company’s third bond programme on the Bolsa de Valores de Asunción, SWE.G3, was issued under a global bond programme with a maximum of Gs. 20,000M (~$3.30M) and an eight-year maximum tenor.
The March 2025 credit rating of pyBBB+ (stable) — the local equivalent of a mid-investment-grade score — allows it to keep tapping public debt markets to fund contracts. The board convened an ordinary shareholders’ assembly on 23 April 2026 to review the annual report, balance sheet and profit-and-loss account for the fiscal year closed 31 December 2025.
The firm is also pursuing two additional international certifications — ISO 14001 (environmental management) and ISO 45001 (occupational health and safety) — to sit alongside its existing ISO 9001. On the project side, its portfolio spans the expansion of Shopping Mariscal’s footbridge, the Holiday Inn Express hotel, pharmaceutical plants, and distribution centres for several blue-chip corporate clients.
What to watch
- Leverage trajectory. Total debt rose 40% in a single year to March 2025; whether revenue growth keeps ahead of the debt load will determine whether the pyBBB+ rating holds.
- Cash position. Immediately available cash fell from Gs. 12,686M to Gs. 5,065M (~$835K) in twelve months — worth monitoring as large contracts require upfront outlays.
- Full-year 2025 results. The April 2026 shareholders’ assembly reviewed the 2025 accounts; once those are filed with the BVA and Superintendencia de Valores, they will show whether the Q1 2025 revenue surge was sustained.
- Paraguay’s construction cycle. The commercial sector and large-scale projects have shown solid performance alongside housing, but any slowdown in Asunción’s office and logistics boom would hit order books quickly given short-cycle billing.
Sources
- Solventa & Riskmétrica — Informe de Calificación PEG G3, Salum & Wenz S.A., corte marzo 2025 (primary financial source; audited Dec 2024 accounts by Russell Bedford Paraguay)
- Bolsa de Valores de Asunción — Emisor: Salum & Wenz S.A. (listing page, bond prospectuses SWE.G1/G2/G3)
- Superintendencia de Valores del Banco Central del Paraguay — ficha de emisor: Salum & Wenz S.A.
- InfoNegocios Paraguay — “De los cimientos a liderar el sector: Salum & Wenz celebra 34 años,” 21 May 2025 (founders, CEO, employee count)
- Diario Correo Comercial — Asamblea General Ordinaria convocatoria, April 2026
- Market data: EODHD.
This is news, not investment advice.
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