The Gilinski banking family and their partners from the Emirati royal family are preparing the sale of several or all segments of Nutresa, one of the large Latin food multinationals. The business, whose circumstances are largely unknown, has emerged through the website of the Financial Superintendency and information leaked by the conglomerate. The National Chocolate Company and Colcafé are just two of the pieces that could be removed from an operation whose suitors are unknown for now. It is only known that these are foreign companies and that the owners of the ultra-processed group based in Medellín hope to obtain about 12,000 million dollars from the operation, more than triple the initial investment made at the end of May of last year. A certain halo Mystery surrounds the terms of the operation. This is made evident by the words of Gabriel Gilinski, the thirty-something son of the head of the clan of Cali tycoons, who through WhatsApp refrained from giving information in conversation with this newspaper. It has emerged that an external consulting firm has piloted part of the process to maximize the profitability of its shareholders. And that the chosen strategy will be to negotiate separately each of the nine segments that make up the group's portfolio.Gabriel Gilinski in Medellín (Colombia), in 2022. Edinson Ivan Arroyo Mora (Bloomberg) Economist Jorge Restrepo assures that Nutresa is one of the few mass consumption conglomerates that has existed in Colombia. “They are very profitable brands because they generate added value based on having distribution and marketing channels for all their brands. So, through the same channel that they distribute sausages, they can distribute cookies. The key is that they are integrated under the same umbrella and now that they want to disintegrate the conglomerate, the business is brutal for them because the value of each line of business is multiplied,” says Restrepo. The problem, the economist continues, is that it creates a series of prevalent actors in each of the business lanes: “I am concerned in cookies and flours, more than in restaurants, because all this will have an effect on consumers who will be subject to the dominant position of the new companies.” In the same way, he maintains that the underlying strategy of the Gilinskis and company is clear: “They broke the castling, appropriated the hidden value of the group and now aspire to sell it for a figure that, like good sellers, they have put into circulation in all The information published on the Superintendency's digital channel details that Grupo Nutresa has called an extraordinary meeting to address, among other matters, the possible sale of assets. And among the candidates to obtain the highest percentages, according to information from the newspaper El Tiempo, are American, European, Mexican and Brazilian investors who will bet on brands that are part of the collective imagination of Colombians such as Noel cookies, Sello Rojo coffee, Jet chocolates or Zenú sausages, among others.
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The analysis of current affairs and the best stories from Colombia, every week in your mailbox RECEIVE ITJuan Pablo Vieira, from the consulting firm JP Trading, explains that many of Nutresa's brands are leaders in each of their niches: “That is why they have much more value independently, than if it were negotiated by the entire ultra-processed food company.” Vieira points out, therefore, that it is the right time for investors to exchange their shares: “It is a very good opportunity because, either a takeover bid was coming to delist the company from the stock market, or a business of this type. Both with a very strong upward potential.”The announcement comes one year after the epilogue of one of the most bitter business battles within the unpleasant history of the Colombian market. Then, the Gilinskis and the International Holding Company (IHC) of the Emirati royal family, agreed with the dissolved Grupo Empresarial Antioqueño (GEA) to take over 87% of Nutresa for 3,375 million dollars and lay down their arms in their crusade to take over of the other two large heads of the Antioquia bloc: Grupo Argos and Inversiones Suramericana. At the same time, an unprecedented bombardment of nine Public Acquisition Offers (takeover bids) was put to an end, a tool launched by the Colombian Arab tandem to negotiate directly with the shareholders of the Antioquia company, which is listed on the stock market, without having to reach agreements with managers who are reluctant to accept their proposals. That is why the adjective “hostile” usually accompanies the acronym opa. And the landing of the Gilinskis in Nutresa also dismantled the so-called “antioqueño enroque”, a business structure built by the Paisa elite to weave their participation through a tangle of cross actions throughout the big three. societies. A kind of corporate wall that, with a certain solvency, became a school in Colombia since the seventies. The figure, which did not have legal support, and its administrative bodies operated separately, reached 125 companies and sufficient weight in the economic life of the country. For its part, the liquidity of Nutresa's share on the Stock Exchange of Colombia, says its manager, Andrés Restrepo, has lost relevance in the market since June of last year: “It is very low. That is why today it is very difficult to analyze what the market is reading because the daily trading of that stock fell to minimums since the transaction with the Gilinskis was closed.” Among the names that have been most talked about to enter this new phase of one of the largest food multilatinas are giants such as the Swiss Nestlé, the British Unilever and the American Mondelēz International. Nutresa has not, for the moment, published a statement on the topic. But the chronology in this story fits perfectly. Precisely the share exchange process established between the old castling groups in June 2023 concluded a month ago. The agreement put an end to Nutresa's participation in Sura and Argos and of these two GEA companies in the multilatina. News that, in the opinion of Jorge Restrepo, leaves an unbeatable scenario for its owners: “But not for Colombians, because Nutresa has a majority position in business lines such as coffee, cold meats and other ultra-processed foods. This market concentration translates into power and affects the country's food security.”Subscribe here to the EL PAÍS newsletter about Colombia and here to the WhatsApp channel, and receive all the key information on current events in the country.
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