Market sources told WEEK that the suspicious transaction on the Colombian Stock Exchange (BVC), the day before Nutresa’s second OPA ended, would have been a sale by Amalfi, of the Scarpetta family. This is where the whole thing gets complex. Claudia Betancourt acts as an independent member of the Grupo Argos board and, at the same time, is the legal representative and directs Amalfi. WEEK contacted her and alleged that she told the Grupo Argos assembly that she would declare herself impeded in the Amalfi decision.
The buyer would have been the Bolívar Group. It should be remembered that Grupo Bolívar is a partner of Sura in Sura Asset Management.
The size of the transaction, for around 150,000 million pesos, leads some market participants to think that it might have been a pre-arranged transaction. Nutresa’s daily volume is a fraction of that figure. WEEK is awaiting what the authorities determine and will publish that information when there are decisions.
The key is in the audios of the stock brokers who participated in said suspicious transaction.
*Gabriel Gilinski is a shareholder of SEMANA Publications.