Grupo IMSA Buys-Back 24% of Shares, Posts Profitable Full-Year 2023
Medellin-based diversified manufacturer Grupo IMSA announced April 22 in a filing with Colombia’s Superfinanciera corporate oversight agency that it has just completed reacquisition of 2.8 million of its own publicly traded shares, equivalent to 24% of all shareholdings.
It’s just the latest move in what amounts to a remake of the conglomerate, which started last year with a US$40 million sale to Austria-based WIG Latam Holding of IMSA’s former holdings in industrial pipes/poles maker O-tek International — including 100% of the O-Tek businesses in Colombia and Mexico, and 25% of O-tek Argentina.
Prior to that WIG Latam sales deal in 2023, Grupo Imsa had — until November 2021 – actually formed a part of Medellin-based paints, chemicals and hardware multinational Grupo Orbis, which itself eventually became a subsidiary of global chemicals giant AkzoNobel.
Following all these changes, Grupo IMSA now describes itself as a “multi-business organization with a diversified focus on the mass consumption industries, pipes and poles, food additives and composite materials,” with four production plants scattered across Colombia, Brazil and Argentina, employing more than 800 people.
The group today incorporates six subsidiaries: MCM Company (personal, home, vehicle and industrial products); O-Tek Argentina (fiberglass poles and pipes), Addimentum (food additives) and chemical-products manufacturing specialists Novascott, Novapo and Novaforma.
For full-year 2023, Grupo IMSA announced that its revenues dipped 4% year-on-year, to COP$494 billion (US$125 million), but profits more-than-doubled year-on-year, to COP$91 billion (US$23 million), from COP$40 billion (US$10 million ) in 2022.
Among its subsidiaries, only MCM and Addimentum actually posted year-on-year sales increases during 2023, while the other subsidiaries posted relatively small sales declines, year-on-year, according to the company.
