SOLAR AHORRO Y FINANZAS S.A.E.C.A.

What it is

Solar was born on 10 November 1979 with a mission to help people with basic needs — originally housing finance. It spent more than four decades as a savings-and-loans institution, then at the end of 2022 converted into a full commercial bank, broadening its product range to include current accounts.

Solar Banco’s business is focused on lending to commercial and consumer customers across a range of segments. By end-2024 its loan book — the money it has lent out — stood at Gs.

2,000,378 million (~US$330 million), giving it roughly a 1.2% share of Paraguay’s combined banking and finance system.

Who owns it

Ownership is concentrated in local shareholders, with the Burró family holding 46% of the bank. The largest single individual shareholder is Gustalé, with 14.3% of the shares.

The remainder is spread among other private local investors; the publicly traded free float is thin, which explains the absence of a live market price.

The bank also holds a subsidiary, La Meridional Paraguaya de Seguros, a Paraguayan insurer. In late 2024 it received approval from Paraguay’s securities regulator (the Superintendencia de Valores) to open Solar Casa de Bolsa, a stock-brokerage affiliate.

Who runs it

Patricia Capurro has been Executive Director — the top management role — of Solar Banco since 2021. She holds a degree in accountancy from the Universidad Nacional de Asunción and a diploma in capital markets, and previously spent ten years as a supervisory manager at Paraguay’s central bank.

A second executive director, who held the role of Director General Manager from 2012 to 2022, now serves as Executive Director alongside Capurro, and also sits on the boards of Solar Casa de Bolsa and La Meridional de Seguros. The Board of Directors is the bank’s ultimate governing body, responsible for representation, direction and oversight; no board members hold simultaneous senior-management positions, reflecting a standard governance separation.

The money, in plain words

At end-2023 — the latest fully audited period from primary sources — total assets were Gs. 2,184,269 million (~US$360 million) and shareholders’ equity (the owners’ cushion) was Gs.

214,309 million (~US$35 million), representing roughly 1.0% and 0.8% shares of the Paraguayan system, respectively.

Pre-tax profit in 2023 was Gs. 30,754 million (~US$5.1 million), a return on average total assets of 1.6% — up from 1.0% in 2022 and recovering toward historical norms.

Not published: the 2024 full-year income statement (revenue and net profit after tax) was not publicly extractable from the BVA balance filings page or the SIV filings page at the time of writing; Paraguayan securities regulation under Resolución SV.SG. N° 0022/2024 requires listed issuers to file quarterly and annual financial statements, but the 2024 annual filing had not yet surfaced in a machine-readable form on either primary portal.

The bank funds most of its lending through customer deposits, supplemented by subordinated bonds and lines from local and foreign lenders — and, since the bank conversion, current-account balances which management is actively growing to reduce funding costs. As of mid-2025, net income was growing at an annualised rate of roughly 12%, and total assets were up nearly 19% year-on-year.

What it is doing now

Management reports that 2024 met all targets on client numbers, loan growth and profitability; the headline new event was the late-2024 regulatory approval for Solar Casa de Bolsa. The bank is expanding its financial group and has announced plans to break ground on a new head office on the corporate strip at San Martín and Tte.

Vera in Asunción.

Strategically, management is pursuing a balance between wholesale and retail banking, pushing current-account growth to cheapen funding, and investing in its digital channels and CRM platform.

What to watch

• Brokerage launch: Solar Casa de Bolsa was still being set up at the start of 2025 — its actual trading volumes will show whether the financial-group strategy adds real income.
• Loan quality: Feller Rate flags the stable outlook but notes that rising loan arrears and credit-loss costs mean the bank must advance in low-cost funding to sustain its profit capacity.
• Scale in a consolidating market: Paraguay’s financial system is actively seeking greater operational scale, with a wave of mergers and conversions reshaping the competitive map. At 1.2% market share, Solar is a small player in a market where size increasingly matters.
• Transparency: The 2024 annual financial statements were not yet published in extractable form on the BVA or SIV portals at the time of writing — a gap that equity investors will want closed promptly.

This is news, not investment advice.