Superdeporte S.A.

What it is

Marathon Sports (Superdeporte S.A.) was established in Quito in March 1999 to import and market sports footwear, shirts, and accessories; it has since positioned itself as the leader in sports clothing, distributing globally recognised brands such as Nike, Puma, and Umbro through more than 100 — now over 140 — stores under the Marathon Sports trade name.

Beyond Marathon Sports, Superdeporte operates Explorer, Teleshop, Puma, Under Armour, and The Athlete’s Foot stores, as well as sports warehouses and outlets. The Marathon banner alone commands roughly 60% of Ecuador’s sports-retail market, ahead of Adidas at 10%, Importaciones Kao at 7%, and Nike at 5%.

The Marathon Sports brand itself was founded in 1980 in Quito, with the first store opening in May 1981. Marathon Sports is the most important sports retailer in Ecuador, known for equipping the national football team since 1994, and is also the official brand of the Ecuadorian Olympic Committee.

Who owns it

On 25 April 2024, the Panamanian firm Todoplay S.A. bought $33.5 million in shares from former controlling shareholder Allegro Ecuador, plus $310,000 from Xavier Ribadeneira, lifting its stake to 85.14% of Superdeporte’s $39.76 million subscribed capital. Todoplay appears in the Panama Papers alongside the Marathon name, though it does not appear as a shareholder of Superdeporte in the Superintendencia de Compañías registry.

The remaining capital is split between the BIESS — Ecuador’s social-security bank — with 4.88%, the national teachers’ pension fund with 3.41%, and hundreds of smaller shareholders. A further change may be imminent: the CEO of Mexican sporting-goods giant Innovasport, Francisco Martín, has publicly stated that his group is acquiring Marathon, though the transaction’s terms and share volume have not been publicly disclosed.

Who runs it

Fausto Fernando Corral Jiménez is the General Manager (Gerente General) and legal representative of Superdeporte S.A., signing all bond and commercial-paper circulars to the market. A separate CFO is not disclosed in available sources; the company lists Bondholder Representative S.A. as trustee for its debt programmes.

The money, in plain words

Superdeporte is a large-volume, thin-margin business — it sells a lot of shoes and shirts, but sport-retail economics leave little profit behind. The company posted net losses in both 2024 and 2025, with net margins of –6.89% and –5.56% respectively — meaning it lost nearly seven cents on every dollar of sales in 2024.

That loss came to roughly $15.6 million on $226.41 million of revenue (our calculation).

The 2024 result was worsened by a severe country-level context: a violent first quarter and electricity blackouts in the fourth quarter hit the whole of Ecuador. The operating margin — the share of sales left after running the stores but before interest costs — was a thin 1.28% in 2024, recovering slightly to 2.58% in 2025, but interest and financial charges consumed those margins and more.

The balance sheet shows how heavily the company leans on borrowed money. Total assets grew from $228.5 million in 2022 to $268.9 million in 2024, before contracting to $242.6 million in 2025.

Creditors funded 90.81% of those assets in 2025, leaving owners (equity) backing just 9.19% — a leverage ratio of 9.88 times (our calculation from the rating report). That is elevated by any standard and leaves little cushion for further losses.

Despite the losses on paper, the company’s bond rating is AAA–. Auditors and the rating committee note that sports retail generates daily cash receipts, giving Superdeporte enough recurring liquidity to service its debts on time even when the income statement is in the red.

The ninth bond issue, rated AAA– by Class International Rating in February 2026, carried a face value of $4 million.

What it is doing now

The defining event of early 2025 is the announced — if still unquantified — acquisition of a stake by Innovasport, Mexico’s leading specialist sports retailer, whose CEO confirmed the deal in remarks to Mexican financial media. Superdeporte has also entered Chile in 2024 via an alliance with Parque Arauco, a major Latin American shopping-centre operator.

The company’s stated priorities include strengthening the online sales channel, deepening the Puma and Under Armour lines across retail and web, growing the urban athleisure category in Marathon and The Athlete’s Foot, and adding technical running brands such as Saucony and Brooks.

What to watch

• The Innovasport transaction: The terms — price, stake size, governance changes — have not been disclosed, and Ecuador’s competition authority has not yet received official notification. Its completion would be the biggest ownership change in the company’s 25-year history.
• Return to profitability: The company projects its financial-debt coverage ratio improving from 1.16 times in 2024 to 1.43 times by 2027 — if costs are controlled and Ecuador’s security environment stabilises.
• Leverage: With creditors funding 91 cents of every asset dollar, any revenue shock — another blackout, a currency-linked import squeeze — could rapidly erode the thin equity cushion.
• Chile and Latam expansion: Superdeporte has engaged Banco Santander to seek a strategic partner for broader Latin American expansion. Whether Innovasport becomes that partner, or a rival to the current controlling shareholder, is unresolved.

This is news, not investment advice.