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(Bloomberg) — A takeover bid for Colombia’s largest food maker fell short of its target, in a fresh setback for Abu Dhabi royal family and billionaire Jaime Gilinski’s bid to rein in the country’s most powerful business alliance.
IHC Capital Holding, which is controlled by the royal family, declined to buy a stake in Grupo Nutresa SA after investors offered 7.7 percent of outstanding shares in an offer that expired on Friday, according to a statement from a stock exchange spokesman. The journal Semana, owned by the Gilinski family, first reported the IHC’s decision.
The company is seeking $15 per share for a 25% to 31.25% stake in the snack, chocolate and coffee maker. The stock closed at 54,600 pesos (about $11) in Bogota.
While Gilinski and the royal family have collaborated on previous Nutresa bids, the offer was initiated directly by IHC, the largest company in the United Arab Emirates by market capitalization and headed by Sheikh Tahnoon Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the UAE’s national security adviser and brother of the president. .
It is the latest chapter in a year-long effort by Gilinski and the Abu Dhabi affiliate to take control of Medellin-based Grupo Empresarial Antioqueno (GEA) by buying stakes in its member companies, including Nutresa. Since November 2021, Jilinski, who made his fortune in the banking industry, has spent more than US$2 billion to become the second largest shareholder of Nutresa and the largest shareholder of Grupo de Inversiones Suramericana SA, a financial holding company.
GEA’s third pillar, infrastructure and cement group Grupo Argos SA, uses a system of cross-shareholdings to protect itself from takeover bids. To gain control of GEA, Gilinski would need to increase his stake in Grupo Sura by an estimated 12% more outstanding shares, or another 20% in Nutresa.
The battle for control of the Medellin group could go to court after a dispute over whether Grupo Sura’s board agreed to sell its stake in Nutresa. It owns 35% of the food maker.
A board of directors made up in part of Gilinski allies had voted on the IHC proposal at a Nov. 10 meeting, according to a document seen by Bloomberg. In a regulatory filing, however, Sura’s management said the company had not yet made a decision on whether to sell, saying the document “does not have legal capacity” because it was produced privately by the three.
Edgar Jimenez, a finance professor at Bogota’s Jorgeta de Olozano University, said resolving the dispute could take years to resolve.
“This may end up being defined by law because on the commercial and commercial side, it doesn’t look like there will be an agreement,” he said.
(Add securities transaction statement in 2nd paragraph)
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