Gilinski Bids for Nutresa, Sura Fall Short, but Board Seats Assured

Colombian banker Jaime Gilinski’s JGDB Holdings and its financing partner Royal Group (Abu Dhabi) on January 12 reported to Bolsa de Valores de Colombia (BVC, Colombia’s stock exchange) that it has finally acquired more than 27% of the shares of Medellin-based multinational foods giant Grupo Nutresa – far short of its 50.1% to 62% goal.

Meanwhile, the JGDB-Royal group simultaneously has now acquired at least 25% of Medellin-based multinational finance giant Grupo Sura — also far short of any controlling interest.

However, the new shareholdings in Nutresa and Sura assure that Gilinski’s group will gain board seats on those companies, part of the so-called “Grupo Empresarial Antioqueño” (GEA), where each company holds significant shares in the others.

Beyond gaining board seats, no-one knows for sure what Cali, Colombia-born Gilinski proposes in order to make profitable changes with those companies — although there’s an assumption that his GNB Sudameris bank eventually would merge with Bancolombia, the latter of which Grupo Sura already holds a commanding interest.

There’s also speculation that Gilinski eventually will launch further rounds of stock bids, in order to boost shareholdings above the 50% required for controlling interests.

Gilinski years ago had been in a lengthy legal battle over control of Bancolombia — a lawsuit that essentially terminated with no winners or losers.

But some see his new shareholding in Sura (with Sura’s simultaneous holding in Bancolombia) as a sort of sweet revenge, given that he and his dollar-rich Abu Dhabi backers bought the new holdings using an historically favorable dollar-to-peso exchange rate.

The total investment by the Gilinski group in the new share acquisitions of Sura and Nutresa are just shy of US$2 billion – providing a big shot-in-the-arm to what had been a sagging Colombia stock market, as the value of the U.S. dollar against the Colombian peso has soared to around COP$4,000/US$1 in recent months.

BVC now only has to certify the Sura/Nutresa stock deals in the next few days, in order to make the Gilinski acquisitions official.