VICENTE SCAVONE & CÍA S.A.E.

What it is

Founded in 1935 by Vicente Scavone, a pioneer of the Paraguayan pharmaceutical industry, the firm has grown over 90 years into one of the country’s leading pharmaceutical companies, employing more than 800 professionals. Its core activity is the industrial manufacture of medicinal, chemical-pharmaceutical, cosmetic, and related products.

Operating under the “Lasca” brand, it offers a broad range of pharmaceutical products divided across multiple business units, including Lascafarma (traditional synthetic molecules) and its scientific division focused on chronic-disease treatments. The company also hosts Paraguay’s first plant authorised to produce and fractionate biotechnological products — a unit that opens the door to cancer treatment and personalised medicine.

Beyond manufacturing, the company has conducted nearly 18,400 import shipments from 921 suppliers, sourcing primarily from Germany, China, and the United States — supplying raw materials, reagents, and equipment to the broader domestic pharmaceutical and chemical industry.

Who owns it

The company is controlled by the Scavone family; named shareholder-litigants in court records include Óscar Vicente Scavone Rivas, César José Luis Scavone Cárdenas, Claudia Teresa María Scavone Cárdenas, Vicente José Scavone Cárdenas, and several other Scavone-surname members. Exact percentage ownership per shareholder is not published in any BVA, BVPASA, or CNV/SIV filing reviewed; Paraguay’s securities law (Ley 1284/98 and CNV resolutions) requires periodic financial disclosure for bond issuers but does not mandate a public shareholder register beyond what appears in bond prospectuses, which list individuals without percentages.

Óscar Vicente Scavone, the family patriarch, is also president of Laboratorios de Productos Éticos SA — another major state contractor — and served as economic adviser to former president Horacio Cartes, as well as president of Club Olimpia. The company is therefore both a private industrial enterprise and a family deeply woven into Paraguay’s public and political life.

Who runs it

Named legal representatives filed with Paraguay’s national procurement authority include Óscar Aníbal Delgado López, Christian Alexander Wentzensen, Pascual Giagni, Vicente Scavone Cárdenas, César Scavone Cárdenas, and María Herminia Caballero, among others. Not published: the company has not published a named CEO, CFO, or board chair in any BVA, BVPASA, or CNV/SIV document reviewed; bond prospectuses name the board collectively without individual titles.

Dun & Bradstreet lists María Herminia Caballero as key principal, consistent with the legal-representative filings.

The money, in plain words

In the first half of 2025, the company recorded sales of Gs. 332,627 million (US$ 54.9 million), a rise of 12.83% year-on-year, audited by the firm Amaral y Asociados to 31 December 2024 with interim data to 30 June 2025.

That pace of growth is solid for a company of this age and size.

For every guaraní of sales it kept about 14.8 cents as net profit — a net margin of 14.8% — healthy for a pharmaceutical manufacturer that also acts as a distributor and state supplier (our calculation). For every guaraní of owner equity invested, it earns back roughly 17 cents per year — a return on equity (ROE) of 17.17% — a strong figure for the sector.

The company keeps about Gs. 623,400 million (US$ 102.8 million) in shareholders’ equity against Gs.

317,344 million (US$ 52.4 million) in total liabilities — a leverage ratio of 0.51, meaning it borrows about half of what its owners have put in, a conservative posture. Its current ratio — how much it has in short-term assets for every guaraní of short-term bills — stands at 3.04, well above the standard comfort level of 1.0.

The one shadow: the company does the vast bulk of its business on credit, with 97% of sales invoiced on deferred terms, and roughly 70% of its receivables are owed by government entities that pay late, creating ongoing cash-flow pressure. To unlock that cash faster, it has been selling those government IOUs to banks at a discount — a practical fix that is costing it more in financing charges each half-year.

What it is doing now

In December 2025, Vicente Scavone launched the first series of its new USD-denominated global bond programme (PEG USD2), arranged by Itaú Invest Casa de Bolsa S.A. Up to 100% of the proceeds may be used for working capital, specifically to pay suppliers. The bond programme has a ceiling of US$ 12 million and a maximum term of 10 years.

In November 2024, Paraguay’s securities regulator (Superintendencia de Valores) temporarily suspended the company from issuing new securities after it missed the deadline for its quarterly financial report to 30 September 2024; the suspension was lifted on 28 November 2024 once the report was filed. The episode was brief but a reminder that timely disclosure is a live governance risk.

What to watch

• Government receivables: nearly half of sales flow to the public sector through government tenders, and chronic late payment by state entities is the firm’s single largest financial risk.
• Financing cost creep: the cost of selling government IOUs to banks at a discount rose 139% in the year to June 2025; if that continues, net margins will compress even as top-line growth holds.
• Biotech expansion: the company’s first-in-Paraguay biotechnology plant, targeting cancer treatment and personalised medicine, is a genuine long-term growth lever if it scales.
• Export momentum: management has projected continuous income growth tied to public-sector, private, and export operations; export markets currently account for only about 3% of sales — the upside is large if execution follows.
• Disclosure quality: the November 2024 regulatory suspension signals that governance infrastructure may not yet match the company’s ambitions as a bond market issuer.

This is news, not investment advice.