Sociedad Hotelera Los Tajibos S.A.

What it is

Los Tajibos is a luxury hotel in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, designed to reflect the local culture through its signature eight-metre hand-carved wooden doors, and affiliated with Marriott International’s Tribute Portfolio — a collection of high-end independent hotels that carry a global loyalty network while preserving local character.

The property hosts Bolivia’s largest convention centre within a hotel, making it the go-to address for diplomatic events, corporate gatherings, and high-profile summits in the country’s commercial capital. It also operates the widest hotel spa in Bolivia and four distinct restaurants — Jardín de Asia, La Terraza, Nazca and Bar Cielo — anchoring the city’s upscale dining scene.

The company was founded on 17 February 1973 as “Sociedad Hotelera Los Tajibos Limitada,” converting to its current joint-stock (S.A.) form in 1981. It has had 100,000 ordinary shares (series HLT1U, denominated in bolivianos, with a nominal value of Bs.

760 each) listed on the Bolsa Boliviana de Valores since 30 December 1999.

Who owns it

Comversa S.A. — the investment vehicle of the Doria Medina family — holds 86,435 shares, a stake of 86.435%, making it an effective family monopoly with a tiny free float of barely 13.6%. The controlling position was assembled in October 2016, when Comversa bought 78,720 shares through the Bolsa Boliviana de Valores at US$496 each — a total outlay of roughly US$39 million.

The patriarch, Samuel Doria Medina, said at the time that the family wanted to keep Los Tajibos as a Bolivian-owned symbol of Santa Cruz, protecting it from potential foreign acquisition. BNB SAFI S.A., a Bolivian fund manager, is also a registered shareholder, representing institutional ownership within the thin public float.

Who runs it

The board of directors is led by Armando Ramiro Gumucio Karstulovic as President and Rodrigo Alberto Bedoya Diez de Medina as Vice-President; full directors include Juan Carlos Urenda, Adrian Samuel Doria Medina Monje (son of the controlling shareholder), and Martin Albert Rapp.

Day-to-day management falls to General Manager Samuel Doria Medina Monje — appointed in December 2020 by the executive presidency of the company — with Patricia Griselda Barroso Sánchez serving as Operations Manager. The appointment places the founding family firmly in both the boardroom and the executive suite.

The money, in plain words

The full income statement — sales and operating costs — is not published in freely accessible primary sources; Bolivia’s securities regulator (ASFI) holds the audited filings but does not make them freely downloadable online. What the exchange data does reveal is telling.

The book value per share — what each share would be worth if the company were liquidated at stated asset values — stood at Bs. 1,368 (≈ US$138.9) at 31 December 2024 and rose to Bs.

1,321 by 31 March 2025.

The last available profit/loss data, drawn from student analyses of ASFI filings covering 2022–2023, shows net losses in both years — equity falling from Bs. 148,769,625 in 2022 to Bs.

127,540,242 in 2023 — with earnings per share deeply negative and no dividends paid. The trajectory from 31 Dec 2024 (VPP Bs.

1,368) versus 31 Mar 2025 (Bs. 1,321) suggests equity continued to drift lower in early 2025 (our calculation).

The market price of Bs. 1,550 per share gives a price-to-book ratio of approximately 1.13× (our calculation) — thin, implying investors value the real assets slightly above their book cost, but without certainty on the operating profit trend.

What it is doing now

Los Tajibos has been named Bolivia’s Leading Hotel, Bolivia’s Leading Business Hotel, and South America’s Leading Conference Hotel at the World Travel Awards for multiple consecutive years through 2025 and 2026, signalling that its brand positioning remains strong even as its profit record has been strained. Internal staff surveys via Great Place to Work show that 93% of employees describe it as an excellent workplace, a metric that carries weight in hospitality, where turnover can erode service quality fast.

Bolivia’s broader macroeconomic stress — a acute dollar shortage and declining foreign reserves — is the most significant headwind for any company earning in bolivianos while paying for international-brand licensing and imported goods in hard currency. Whether the 2024 accounts show a return to profit remains to be seen when ASFI filings become accessible.

What to watch

• 2024 audited results: The full income statement, when ASFI publishes or the company files it, will reveal whether management has turned the corner from two years of reported losses.
• Bolivia’s dollar crisis: Tight hard-currency access squeezes any company dependent on imports or foreign-brand royalties; it is the single largest macro risk on the horizon.
• National expansion: The controlling shareholder stated from the outset an ambition to take the Los Tajibos brand national — any announcement of a second property would be a significant re-rating event for a company trading at a thin premium to book.
• Free float and liquidity: With barely 13.6% of shares in public hands, the stock trades infrequently; price moves can be sudden and wide on very small volumes, a structural risk for any outside investor.

This is news, not investment advice.