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In Bolivia, there are certainly big companies and most of them pass the $1 billion in total assets, but as you’ll see, the majority of them are managed by the Bolivian government or are otherwise the major banks that operate in the country. These enterprises, particularly in the public ones, mean a lot for Bolivia and its economy, because they support it.

The biggest Bolivian companies by assets are YPFB $10.3B; Mercantile Santa Cruz Bank $5,3B; ENDE $5.2B; Union Bank, $4.2B; and BNB Bank $4B. By annual income, the largest are CBN $178M; ENDE $169M; Entel $132M; YPFB Transport $91M; and San Cristobal Mining $67M. Most of them are either public or banks.

In this note about the biggest companies of Bolivia, we’ll walk you through all the data about these biggest corporations of our country, emphasizing in which are their total assets, annual income, sales revenue, also the most important details for each of them. We are business experts from Bolivia.

The general size of Bolivian companies

The Bolivian largest companies can be seen in the order of a few billion dollars in total assets and several tens of millions of dollars in annual income. They are certainly small compared to companies from overseas, but compared to Bolivia’s total GDP, which is around $40 billion, they are certainly big.

Many of these companies have been the main reason for political and social troubles in the past in the country, as they are key to Bolivia’s economy, also that’s why half of them are also managed by the Bolivian government. Many of these are also banks, as the banking system here is very solid and also held by private owners.

According to a research study (Spanish, translated) done by the economist Hugo Siles Espada about the 500 largest companies of Bolivia in 2021, the following are the 20 biggest companies in the country.

The top 20 biggest companies in Bolivia

If we classify the largest companies in Bolivia according to their total assets, we’ll see that for 2021, the largest are:

1. YPFB (assets: $13,514 mill.)
2. Mercantile Santa Cruz Bank (assets: $5,317 mill.)
3. Electricity National Company (assets: $5,209 mill.)
4. Union Bank (assets: $4,201 mill.)
5. BNB Bank (assets: $4,010 mill.)
6. Bisa Bank (assets: $3,382 mill.)
7. Credit Bank (assets: $3,106 mill.)
8. SCFG Group (assets: $2,666 mill.)
9. Fassil Bank (assets: $2,637 mill.)
10. YPFB Transport (assets: $2,478 mill.)
11. Entel (assets: $2,351 mill.)
12. Fie Bank (assets: $2,186 mill.)
13. BancoSol (assets: $2,060 mill.)
14. Ganadero Bank (assets: $1,921 mill.)
15. San Cristobal Mining Comp. (assets: $1,808 mill.)
16. Economic Bank (assets: $1,587 mill.)
17. YPFB Andina (assets: $1,481 mill.)
18. YPFB Chaco (assets: $1,408 mill.)
19. Prodem Bank (assets: $1,293 mill.)
20. YPFB Refining (assets: $1,289 mill.)

	Company	Assets (millions of $)	Sales Revenue (millions of $)	Annual Income (millions of $)	Owners and shareholders
1	YPFB	13,514	6,233	37	Government
2	Mercantile Santa Cruz Bank	5,317	~257	32	Private, national
3	National Electricity Company	5,209	~286	155	Government
4	Union Bank	4,201	~271	38	Government
5	BNB Bank	4,010	~257	36	Private, national
6	Bisa Bank	3,382	~257	34	Private, national
7	Credit Bank	3,106	~257	28	Private, Peruvian
8	SCFG	2,666	<200	<14	Private, national
9	Fassil Bank	2,637	~257	<14	Private, national
10	YPFB Transport	2,478	~271	91	Government
11	Entel	2,351	658	132	Government
12	Fie Bank	2,186	~264	24	Government
13	BancoSol	2,060	~286	48	Private, national
14	Ganadero Bank	1,921	<200	17	Private, national
15	San Cristobal Mining	1,808	622	67	Private, Japanese
16	Economic Bank	1,587	<200	16	Private, national
17	YPFB Andina	1,481	~271	<14	Government
18	YPFB Chaco	1,408	~257	<14	Government
19	Prodem Bank	1,293	<200	23	Private, Venezuelan
20	YPFB Refining	1,289	1,084	<14	Government

1) YPFB

This oil and gas refinery company, owned by the Bolivian government, is by far the biggest company that currently operates in Bolivia. This public corporation has a long story that involves many conflicts between the Bolivian government and foreign investors that were present before to find and extract petroleum and gas in the country.

Back in 2003, YPFB was a both private and public company, owned partially by the Bolivian government, but also by foreign capitals from the United States. But the gas revolution happened and the Bolivian government decided to expropriate it and get all its revenue for the Bolivian State and Bolivian people, as authorities stated.

YPFB in 2021: Total assets: $13,515 mill. Sales revenue: $6,233 mill. Annual income: $37 mill.

2) Mercantile Santa Cruz Bank

This is the largest bank in Bolivia and also the 2nd largest company in the country. This bank is the result of a fusion between 3 banks that existed before. The first fusion was between the Mercantile Bank and the Santa Cruz Bank, turning the company into the “Mercantile Santa Cruz Bank”. 

Years later, this bank absorbed another major one of Bolivia that existed back in those days, the “Los Andes Bank”. Because of these 2 major fusions, now the Mercantile Santa Cruz Bank is the largest in Bolivia and also the 2nd largest company that currently operates within the country, which by the way is a well-established entity and has a very healthy financial status.

Mercantil Santa Cruz Bank in 2021: Total assets: $5,317 mill. Sales revenue: ~$257 mill. Annual income: $32 mill.

3) Electricity National Company (ENDE)

This is a public company (managed by the government) that provides electricity services to the whole country, so, according to Bolivian authorities, it’s a strategic asset for the country, which has been also involved in past conflicts about the privatization of companies in Bolivia with foreign capitals and also the nationalization of them.

This company is huge, having tens of electricity generation plants across the country that generate hundreds of megawatts of energy for the principal urban areas and cities of Bolivia. It’s a statal company that also has a monopoly in the electricity market here, and it’s the only enterprise that provides these services.

Electricity National Company in 2020: Total assets: $5,209 mill. Sales revenue: ~$286 mill. Annual income: $155 mill.

4) Union Bank

This is the only commercial bank that currently belongs to the Bolivian government. It’s a major financial institution that was bought by the Bolivian estate a decade ago, and it’s responsible for managing many of the economic and social projects in Bolivia that impact its population, like issuing bonds, social and financial aids, paying social securities, etcetera.

But beyond this, this Bank also offers all the services that any major other bank in Bolivia also has. For example, loans of different types, home mortgages, business loans, the opening of bank accounts, credit cards, insurance, etcetera. It’s interesting to see that this bank is always crowded by all types of people all day long, unlike other Banks.

Union Bank in 2021: Total assets: $4,201 mill. Sales revenue: ~$271 mill. Annual income: $38 mill.

5) BNB Bank

Another huge and also very old bank of Bolivia, which has existed since more than 100 years ago. First, it was the official Bank of the government and was responsible for providing cash to the economic system, but later it was replaced by the BCB as the official bank of the Bolivian government.

It currently offers all the spectrum of services that any major bank around the world can offer. It’s one of the best-established brands in our country, serving both privates and companies in whatever banking services they would need to get. It also has some branches like BNB Valores (for investing in Bolivian stocks), BNB Leasing, and BNB Safi (mutual funds manager).

BNB Bank is the major competitor of Santa Cruz and Union Banks and is, without a doubt, one of the 5 most important Banks in Bolivia.

BNB Bank in 2021: Total assets: $4,010 mill. Sales revenue: $257 mill. Annual income: $36 mill.

6) Bisa Bank

With about 60 years of history in Bolivia, this is one of the major banks that offer financial services to personal and corporate clients in our country. Back in the 70s and 80s, it was only an industrial bank, having only services for organizations and principally industrial companies. But later it became a commercial bank, offering the full spectrum of banking services.

Today, this bank is the 4th largest in Bolivia and one of the 250 largest banks in South America. It also offers different kinds of specialized services in separate brands, like Bisa Leasing, Bisa Insurance, and Bisa La Vitalicia (for personal insurance). It’s also a major shareholder of the ATMs’ Bolivian system company, Red Enlace.

Bisa Bank in 2021: Total assets: $3,382 mill. Sales revenue: ~$257 mill. Annual income: $34 mill.

7) Credit Bank

This is a filial of the Peruvian Credit Bank (BCP), which is operating in the country for more than 25 years to these days. It at the beginning entered the country by the acquisition of a Bolivian Bank called Banco Popular. Later, it also absorbed 2 other important Banks; the Banco de La Paz and the BNA. Nowadays, it’s one of the most important banks that operate in Bolivia.

This multi-purpose bank offers the full range of services that any other main financial institution provides in the country. It also has 2 filial brands with specialized services: CrediBolsa S.A., which offers assistance in the Bolivian stock market, and CrediSeguro S.A., which offers insurance of various types.

Credit Bank in 2021: Total assets: $3,106 mill. Sales revenue: ~$257 mill. Annual income: $28 mill.

8) SCFG Group

This is a network of companies working in the financial services industry of Bolivia, which also includes the Fassil Bank, but additionally other brands, like the “Santa Cruz Securities Agencia de Bolsa”, “Investments Sociedad Administradora de Fondos de Inversión”, among others.

This network of financial companies was founded in Santa Cruz De La Sierra, the largest city in Bolivia. All the companies that conform to this network offer services in several financial areas, like banking, insurance, investments, entrepreneurs assistance, and real estate investments. But from this network, the Fassil Bank is by far the largest member.

SCFG in 2021: Total assets: $2,666 mill. Sales revenue: <$200 mill. Annual income: <$14 mill.

9) Fassil Bank

This bank is part of the SCFG Group (Santa Cruz Financial Group S.A.), mentioned in the last section. It was refounded in 2014 after being from its initial creation in 1996 as just a private financial fund. Thanks to the injection of capital provided by SCFG, the Fassil Bank now has been turned into one of the most important banks in Bolivia.

Although this is still a new bank and also not really present in the minds of most Bolivian clients, it’s growing at a very fast rate, imposing great competition to currently large and very established banks of Bolivia.

At this time this Fassi Bank is going through important financial and legal troubles, so be very careful when using this bank.

Fassil Bank in 2021: Total assets: $2,637 mill. Sales revenue: ~$257 mill. Annual income: <$14 mill.

10) YPFB Transport

This company is in charge of moving and transporting the gas, oil petroleum, and petroleum derivatives that its mother company, YPFB, currently extracts or refines. This is a standalone estatal company, but YPFB is a shareholder with about 99% of the total shares. Still being a child company of YPFB, it’s huge, with assets of $2,478M.

This entity is the result of a prior division and restructuring that the Bolivian government did in its strategic companies’ nationalization activities, back in the 2000 decade. With this restructuring, the government created several child companies from YPFB, including YPFB Transport, YPFB Andina, YPFB Chaco, and YPFB Refining, among others.

YPFB Transport in 2021: Total assets: $2,478 mill. Sales revenue: ~$271 mill. Annual income: $91 mill.

11) Entel 

This is the main telecommunications company of Bolivia, which is responsible for providing connectivity, phone, and internet services to the country. Entel is also a government company, which is, according to Bolivian authorities, on the list of strategic corporations of Bolivia.

But this company doesn’t have the monopoly of its market, it competes against 2 other major telecommunications and phone companies, Tigo and Viva. Despite this, Entel currently owns about 44% of the total market share. It also has a couple of thousand radio bases spread across the country and a huge wire network that fully covers Bolivia.

Entel in 2021: Total assets: $2,351 mill. Sales revenue: $658 mill. Annual income: $132 mill.

12) Fie bank

Another major multi-purpose bank in Bolivia, which was born more than 30 years ago, started as a microcredit institution. Later In 1997, it turned out into a private financial fund, after this in 2010, it converted itself into a multi-purpose bank that now offers the full range of financial services that both personal and corporate clients require in Bolivia.

This fully private bank is one of the most important in the country, so, it’s very close to its competitors in size and total assets, like the Union Bank, Bisa Bank, etcetera. So, the same as these other financial entities, it has become one of the largest companies that currently operate in the country.

Fie Bank in 2021: Total assets: $2,186 mill. Sales revenue: ~$264 mill. Annual income: $24 mill.

13) BancoSol

This is the largest PYME bank in Bolivia, which means that it supports the foundation and growth of small businesses and entrepreneurs, providing several types of loans and other very specific services to new and small companies. These loans for new businesses aren’t touched by other major banks, as they are very risky, but BancoSol takes the task of providing these loans.

BancoSol has a large tradition of helping small companies in their initial steps and is specialized in microloans and microfinance since its creation, 35 years ago. First, it was just a foundation, after that, it became the first microfinance bank in Bolivia, having great success since then, and even exporting its know-how on microfinance for small businesses to other countries.

BancoSol in 2021: Total assets: $2,060 mill. Sales revenue: ~$286 mill. Annual income: $48 mill.

14) Ganadero Bank

Another major bank of Bolivia and one of the largest companies here, This fully private bank is still focused on helping principally agroindustrial and agricultural companies, but now it also offers the full range of services that any major multipurpose bank in the country also should offer. Nowadays, it’s growing at a 12% rate each year.

Ganadero Bank, born in Santa Cruz De La Sierra around 30 years ago, initially specialized only in providing financial services to the livestock field, but it soon expanded its services to provide more services to agricultural businesses and similar fields. Nowadays, despite being a major Bank in the country, it’s still focused on serving mainly businesses rather than personal clients.

Ganadero Bank in 2021: Total assets: $1,921 mill. Sales revenue: <$200 mill. Annual income: $17 mill.

15) San Cristobal Mining Comp.

This is the largest mining company in Bolivia, which extracts lead, silver, and zinc from a huge mineral deposit located very close to the San Cristobal town (currently moved to another place), in Potosí department, very near to the Uyuni’s Salt. It’s a subsidiary of the Japanese mini company Sumitomo Corporation and started operating in 1996.

This mining company has brought development to communities and towns around this very faraway place in the Altiplano region of Bolivia. It has cutting-edge technologies and complies with international standards for the mining industry, also being an important contributor to the Bolivian government in taxes, despite being a fully private mining company.

San Cristobal Mining in 2021: Total assets: $1,808 mill. Sales revenue: $622 mill. Annual income: $67 mill.

16) Economic Bank

This is also another major multipurpose bank of Bolivia, that has been active since 30 years ago. It offers the full spectrum of services that any major financial institution here must offer (multi-purpose banks), like giving loans of different types, the creation of checking savings and all sorts of accounts, solutions for both personal and corporate clients, and so on.

This major bank is well established in the minds of Bolivians and is a fully private company that has positioned itself very well in the last 20 decades within the country.

Economic Bank in 2021: Total assets: $1,587 mill. Sales revenue: <$200 mill. Annual income: $16 mill.

17) YPFB Andina

This is another subsidiary of YPFB, and it’s in charge of the general exploration and extraction of petroleum and gas in the Bolivian territory. It is owned by the Bolivian government and it’s considered a strategic asset that contributes to the stability and expansion of the Bolivian economy.

It was born when the government decided to divide YPFB, which was the main oil and gas company of Bolivia, into several ones, each focused on different activities related to the gas and petroleum ecosystem, like YPFB Transport, YPFB Andina, YPFB Chaco, etcetera. Despite being a standalone child company, differentiated from YPFB, it’s still huge and one of the largest in the country.

YPFB Andina in 2021: Total assets: $1,481 mill. Sales revenue: ~$271 mill. Annual income: <$14 mill.

18) YPFB Chaco

Another subsidiary company from YPFB, which is specialized in the exploration and extraction of gas in the Tarija department. Bolivian gas is one of the most important natural resources that are currently produced for internal consumers and also exported to nearby countries. So, YPFB Chaco is also huge for this only reason.

As we said before, this is one of the subdivisions of YPFB, among others like YPFB Refining, YPFB Andina, etcetera.

YPFB Chaco in 2021: Total assets: $1,408 mill. Sales revenue: ~$257 mill. Annual income: <$14 mill.

19) Prodem Bank

The Prodem Bank is another important Bank in the country, it was born 20 years ago as a private financial fund that was focused on helping small businesses to rise and become established companies. It has been very successful since then, to the point that now it has become a multi-purpose bank of Bolivia, a distinction that needs to be approved by the ASFI, which is the banks’ regulator here.

Back in 2008, it was partially acquired by the Venezuelan BANDES bank, which is now the main shareholder of this bank. Currently, it gives jobs to about 2,500 employees. But despite not being one of the largest banks in Bolivia, it’s still a major company in the country that has assets above $1 billion.

Prodem Bank in 2021: Total assets: $1,293 mill. Sales revenue: <$200 mill. Annual income: $23 mill.

20) YPFB Refining

Another subsidiary of YPFB, this standalone public enterprise is only focused on making derivatives from oil and gas to satisfy the internal demand and also for exporting. It makes different kinds of fuels, like premium gas, kerosene, jet oil, and other similar products. It’s another strategic asset for the Bolivian government, which tries to add value to the country’s natural resources.

This is one of the biggest child companies born in the restructuring that the government made back in 2008-2012, creating several companies from YPFB, including YPFB Transport, YPFB Andina, YPFB Chaco, YPFB Refining, etcetera. Despite being a standalone statal company, focused only on making derivatives from Bolivian petroleum and gas, it’s certainly quite large.

YPFB Refining in 2021: Total assets: $1,289 mill. Sales revenue: $1,084 mill. Annual income: <$14 mill.

Top 10 biggest companies of Bolivia, by annual income

Next, we’ll show you the largest companies that operate in Bolivia, according to their earnings per year or how profitable they are, as you can see in the table below. Some of these following companies actually don’t have too many assets, but they are very profitable.

	Company	Annual Income (millions of $)
1	CBN	178
2	National Electricity Company	169
3	Entel	132
4	YPFB Transport	91
5	San Cristobal Mining	67
6	Sol Bank	48
7	Ende Transmission	43
8	Gas Trans Bolivian	40
9	Tigo Bolivia	39
10	YPFB	37

As you can see, in the list there are a lot of companies that belong to the government, also many that have been mentioned before, because they either have a huge volume of assets or they sell a lot. But there are also some relatively smaller companies like CBN, ENDE Transmission, and Gas Trans Bolivia.

In regards to CBN, you need to know that in Bolivia, drinking is very common and is an issue we struggle a lot with, so it shouldn’t be any other way, the main beer company of the country is also the one that has the best profits. This company is always sponsoring all kinds of festivals, holidays, and any event within the country.

The list also shows a subsidiary of ENDE, which is focused on the transmission of the energy and electricity that is produced, ENDE Transmission. And lastly, Gas Trans Bolivian, another subsidiary of YPFB, is solely responsible for transporting gas from Bolivia to Brazil by several pipelines.

Top 10 biggest companies of Bolivia, by sales revenue

Now we are going to compare the 10 largest companies in Bolivia according to their annual income, as you can see in the table below. Although some of the next enterprises are not too massive in assets, they certainly have the largest sales volume in the country.

	Company	Sales Revenue (millions of $)
1	YPFB	6,233
2	YPFB Refining	1,084
3	Entel	658
4	Tigo Bolivia	629
5	San Cristobal Mining	622
6	Alicorp	507
7	CBN	502
8	Comibol	393
9	Embol Coca-cola	364
10	Pil Andina	354

Important companies to mention from this list are for example Tigo Bolivia, which is the second largest telecommunications company in the country, very close to Entel, and with ~30% share of the market. Also, AliCorp, which is a food and sweets company that is present all over South America, including Bolivia, and according to the words of one of its directors, it’s a strategic country for them.

After this is CBN, which is the main beer and spiritual drinks company of Bolivia, that currently may own nearly 80% of the market, and it’s very successful because in Bolivia drinking is very common. Despite this, CBN beer company does not export its products. We also have Comibol, which is a mining government company with more than 60 years extracting several types of resources.

Later there is the largest bottling company in the country, which also bottles Coca-Cola products, among several drinking sodas, but this company doesn’t produce American soda, it only bottles it. Finally, we have Pil Andina, which produces the milk that Bolivia consumes, and also all its derivatives, it’s nowadays dominating this internal market.

Size of Bolivian companies compared to other countries

When comparing the largest companies of Bolivia with the world, for example, with the Fortune 500, you get aware of how small our Bolivian companies really are. Corporations on Fortune’s list average assets of many hundreds of billion dollars. 

We can say that the size rate is about 1/250, so, on average, the largest Bolivian companies are 250 times smaller than the largest companies in the world. It’s also worth mentioning that most of the biggest companies in Bolivia are operated by the Bolivian government, however, the largest companies in the world are mostly private. 

Even more, just a few banks are present among the largest companies in the world, but almost half of the list of the largest companies in Bolivia are banks, and this is because the country doesn’t have a very complex business system and economy that allows very focused companies of different fields to grow into a really large size.

Conclusions

Here you’ve seen which are the biggest companies in Bolivia, according to a study done by a well-known economist in our country, depending on their total assets, annual income, and sales revenue. You saw that the biggest companies here are either from the government or banks, except for San Cristobal Mining.

You have seen that the largest ones are YPFB, Mercantile Santa Cruz Bank, ENDE Electricity, Union Bank, BNB Bank, and so on, all of them being in the $5-$15B range in total assets. Also, by annual income, the biggest ones are CBN, ENDE, Entel, YPFB Transport, and San Cristobal Mining, with their income being in the $50-$200M range.

You also learned that, by sales revenue, the largest companies are YPFB, YPFB Refining Entel, Tigo Bolivia, and San Cristobal Mining, with it being in the $0.6-$6B range. 

Finally, you saw that if you compare the largest companies of Bolivia with the largest from overseas, these first ones are around 1/250 the size of the largest ones of, for example, the Fortune 500 list. Despite this, the biggest companies in Bolivia are key to its economy and represent a major source of income for the country and its citizens.

We hope this information has helped you, and if you want to know everything about the Bolivian economy, with all the facts, numbers, history, and also actual situation, visit our dedicated guide in the following direction: How is the Bolivian economy? All the facts and details. Link

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