Gilinski’s $1 Billion Bid Raises Stakes in Colombia Battle

(Bloomberg) -- Jaime Gilinski is making a fresh run at taking control of Colombia's largest business group with a $1 billion bid to increase his ownership stakes of a financial conglomerate and the country's largest food maker.

Gilinski, a banking billionaire and one of Colombia's richest men, is offering to buy as much as $690 million worth of Grupo Nutresa SA, a maker of snacks, chocolates, coffees and cold cuts, for $12.58 a share. A simultaneous offer to investors in Grupo de Inversiones Suramericana SA for $9.88 per share would give Gilinski as much as roughly $300 million more of the banking and insurance holding.

The offers, announced by regulators late Monday, came just hours after a previous round of bids expired. Gilinski and Abu Dhabi's royal family have already invested $2.4 billion in the companies since November, making him the largest shareholder in Grupo Sura and the second largest in Nutresa. Both bids may run until April, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Still, he's been rebuffed in his ultimate goal of taking control of an alliance of Medellin-based businesses, known as the Grupo Empreserial Antioqueno, or GEA. Nutresa, Sura and infrastructure conglomerate Grupo Argos SA are members of the GEA, which employs a system of cross ownership to protect themselves from takeover attempts.

Read More: Colombian Billionaire Gilinski Boosts Stakes in Nutresa and Sura

Gilinski's latest offers appear to be aimed at convincing Argos to sell at least some of the 9.88% it owns of Nutresa and the 27.76% of Sura. Argos's board of directors has rejected the last two offers, relying on analyses by JPMorgan Chase & Co. that found the first offer “significantly underestimated” the value of Nutresa and the second was “inferior to the fundamental value” of Sura and Nutresa, according to regulatory filings.

Sweetened Deal

Gilinski's latest offer represents a 127% premium for Nutresa compared to the closing price before the first offer was announced in November, according to BTG Pactual. The offer for Sura is at an 83% premium. Still, they don't expect the GEA to participate “despite Gilinski sweetening the deal,” analysts Daniel Guardiola and Daniel Callamand wrote in a note Tuesday.

“At the price of the new offers, Grupo Argos' stake in Grupo Sura and Nutresa is worth $2 billion,” the analysts wrote. “In our base-case, we don't expect GEA holding companies to tender.”

Even at current levels, Gilinski is likely to gain at least two board seats in both Nutresa and Sura, putting him in position to wield influence over business decisions. He's so far fallen short, however, of gaining a majority stake in any of the companies.

Gilinski is seeking to gain an additional 12% stake in Nutresa in a joint venture with the Royal Group, an investment vehicle linked to Abu Dhabi's royal family. He's also seeking as much as 6.5% more of Sura in a deal in which the Royal Group is not involved. If he's successful, he'd obtain a total of around 42% of Nutresa, potentially enough to win a third board seat.

Shares in the companies have been suspended as regulators evaluate the bids.