With valuations so far this year of 62.7% and 19.8%, the Nutresa and Sura shares start this Monday a new week marked by the Public Acquisition Offers (OPA) launched by the Gilinski Group, which intends to expand the shareholding it already has in these Antioquian companies.
At this juncture, on Holy Tuesday, the Bank of the Republic released the Economic Drafts text in which the experts, Luis Fernando Melo, Camilo Andrés Orozco and Daniel Parra, analyzed takeover bids and their effect on returns in the stock marketwhich focused on the case of Nutresa and Sura.
The document, which was clarified, does not commit the Issuer nor its board of directors, affirms that under the different specifications estimated by the economic researchers, the returns were statistically different during the event (the OPA) with respect to those that would have been observed in normal times without the presence of the event.
“A possible explanation of this phenomenon in the Colombian case could be attributed to the recomposition of the portfolio of investors who decided to make a profit by accepting the OPAs or selling the shares of Nutresa and Sura directly in the market to later acquire shares of the other companies listed on the stock exchange. Likewise, there is also the possibility that some agents could have been arbitraging in the market in search of profits, for example, buying in the market hoping to sell in the OPA,” the document reads.
The experts they do not rule out short-term effects derivatives of speculation since it is a competition between the so-called Grupo Empresarial Antioqueño (GEA) and the bidder (Grupo Gilinski), and the possibility of future takeover bids either for Nutresa and Sura or for the rest of the GEA companies (for example, Argos and Bancolombia), all of which would encourage higher prices for these shares.
“It is important to make it clear that this document finds a positive and significant short-term effect on the share prices of the Colombian stock market in the face of the event of January 17, 2022 related to the award of the Nutresa and Sura takeover bids. Likewise, the medium and long-term impacts of these OPAs could be topics of interest for further research.
Progress of the third takeover bids
In development of the third offers initiated last April 6, the Colombian Stock Exchange (BVC) records 536 acceptances by the shareholders of these companies who would be interested in alienating the species.
In the case of Nutresa, from April 6 to 13, they were 115 acceptances received, representing 305,939 shares, that is, 0.07% of the shares in circulation of the food group that could be acquired by the Nugil company, which is the owner of the takeover bid.
The purpose of Nugil, who already has 30.8% of Nutresa, is to acquire a percentage that would be between 9.6% and 12%, paying US$12.58 per share. Last Holy Wednesday the kind of Nutresa closed on the stock market with a price of $46,190, a higher value of 62.7% to the $28,380 it had at the beginning of this year.
Likewise, the stock exchange pointed out that in the third takeover bid for Sura, which also began its acceptance period on April 6, it has received 421 statements from shareholders who would have the intention of selling. In total they would be 1.6 million shares of Sura, representing 0.34% of the outstanding shares that would remain in the hands of JGDB Holdinga Gilinski company that appears as the offeror.
This time the goal of JGDB Holding, which already owns 31.5% of Sura, is to acquire a new portion, between 5.2% and 6.5%, offering US$9.88 for each share.
On the last day of Holy Week, on Wednesday, the kind of Sura ended at $35,830, with a variation of 19.8% compared to the $29,900 in which it was quoted at the beginning of January.
Las Simultaneous and concurrent tender offer by Gilinski for more shares of Sura and Nutresa will end on Monday, April 25, but bidders could extend the acceptance period.
An additional component within these processes is that during these weeks the groups Sura, Nutresa and Argos have convened their extraordinary shareholders’ meetings in which they will put into consideration the possible conflicts of interest that some members of their boards of directors would have to make a decision regarding Gilinski’s offers.
On two previous occasions, in which this exercise has been carried out, the independent members of the boards have made the decision not to accept the offers, while the proprietary members of the management bodies have withdrawn from the deliberation.
After the ordinary meetings of Sura and Nutresa held in March, Gabriel Gilinski had the necessary vote to occupy a seat on the boards of those companies as an equity member, while in Sura José Luis Suárez Parra, nominated by Gilinski, remained as an independent member, and in Nutresa Gilinski’s independent record is Ricardo Fandiño.
The expectation in these meetings will be about the decision that Gabriel Gilinski makes about withdrawing or not from the discussions, due to possible conflicts of interest, to determine what to do with the OPAs, and subsequently the positions adopted by the independent members, Suárez and Parra, in the deliberations of the board of directors.