Sociedad Boliviana de Cemento S.A. (SOBOCE)

What it is

SOBOCE was founded on 24 September 1925 and is today Bolivia’s leading producer and seller of cement, ready-mix concrete, aggregates, precast elements, and construction services. It has capacity to grind more than 3 million tonnes of cement a year and runs three cement plants strategically placed in the departments of La Paz, Santa Cruz, and Tarija.

Its market share stands at 46%, giving it nearly half of Bolivia’s entire cement market. Its household brands include Cemento Warnes and Viacha — names that Bolivians associate with every major structure built in the country over the past century.

Who owns it

SOBOCE is part of the prestigious Grupo Gloria of Peru, which through its subsidiary Yura Inversiones Bolivia controls 99% of the company’s shares. The previous majority shareholder, Bolivian businessman Samuel Doria Medina, sold his 51% stake to the Peruvian group for USD 300 million in December 2014, a transaction confirmed by the Bolsa Boliviana de Valores as legally compliant.

Grupo Gloria — a Peruvian conglomerate — is the transnational owner of SOBOCE and continues to express confidence in the country’s long-term potential. The remaining ~1% of shares is dispersed; the free float for equity trading purposes is effectively nil, as SOBOCE participates on the BBV’s negotiation desk (Mesa de Negociación) exclusively through its bond programmes, ticker SBC.

Who runs it

Francisco Shwortshik is General Manager (CEO) of SOBOCE; the industry he leads faces a crisis marked by rising production costs — up 18–25% — driven primarily by a shortage of US dollars and inflation in imported inputs. Shwortshik brings extensive experience in construction materials companies across Mexico and Latin America, having previously managed operations in both Mexico and Central America.

Not published: the name of the Chief Financial Officer and the full composition of the board of directors are not disclosed in open BBV filings, the ASFI issuer card (appweb.asfi.gob.bo), or the company’s public sustainability reports. Bolivian securities regulations (Reglamento de Información de Emisores, ASFI) require issuers to report material changes in senior management as “hechos relevantes” but do not mandate publication of the full executive roster in a structured, machine-readable format.

The money, in plain words

In fiscal year 2022, SOBOCE posted losses of USD 22 million — a hard year by any measure. In 2024, losses were recorded again, attributed largely to the foreign-exchange crisis.

The PCR ratings report (using audited accounts to March 2023) confirms that the return on equity — what owners earn for every boliviano they put in — was negative across the entire 2019–2023 period, and the net profit margin was also negative to September 2023. Total assets stood at approximately Bs 3,241 million (~USD 329 m at current rates) in fiscal year 2023, per the same report.

Bolivia’s cement sector has capacity to produce 9 million tonnes a year but real demand does not exceed 4 million — a structural mismatch that arrived in 2017 when new competitors entered the market and has since driven a sustained price war. That glut, not mismanagement, is the primary cause of SOBOCE’s losses; its bond credit rating of AA3 (stable) from Pacific Credit Rating, reaffirmed December 2025, signals that bondholders still view the company as able to service its debt.

Not published: exact revenue for the fiscal years ending March 2024 or March 2025 is not available in machine-readable open-access form. The audited financial statements are filed with ASFI and the BBV but are not digitally retrievable without a paid data subscription (EMIS, Cbonds) or physical inspection of exchange filings.

SOBOCE’s own Memoria Financiera is described in the sustainability report as a public document compliant with national norms for industrial companies, but it is not posted on the company website or the BBV portal in searchable form.

What it is doing now

As of May 2026, CEO Shwortshik confirmed that SOBOCE will fulfil its full 2026 investment plan despite the social unrest that has disrupted the country, affirming a long-term view of the Bolivian market. In March 2026, the company launched Cemento Blanco, a high-end product, through its ConstruRed retail network — including the new ConstruRed Pro format designed for contractors and distributors.

Facing the structural over-supply, Shwortshik has proposed a public-private partnership with the government to improve industry efficiency and address the structural imbalances in the sector. SOBOCE retains market leadership at 45–47%, but the CEO acknowledges that leadership has not shielded the company from the financial damage caused by the foreign-exchange crisis and rising costs.

What to watch

• Dollar scarcity. Key inputs — refractory bricks, cement bags — must be bought in US dollars; Bolivia’s FX shortage has made these materially more expensive and directly compressed margins. Any easing of the dollar crunch is the single biggest lever for profitability.
• Sector consolidation. Competitor Fancesa is described as technically insolvent, while Coboce and the state-owned Ecebol face liquidity problems — sector stress that could eventually shrink supply and restore pricing power.
• Demand from autoconstruction vs. state projects. Total cement consumption grew 2% in 2024, lifted by self-build housing, but demand from large construction projects fell 15%, as public and private mega-projects decelerated.
• Centennial bond renewal. Several SOBOCE VII bonds mature in 2026–2027; how the company refinances them — and at what interest rate — will reveal how much credit confidence has recovered since the loss years.

This is news, not investment advice.