SEMANA published an article this Friday indicating that the shareholders of Grupo Argos and Grupo Nutresa had lost more than 10 billion pesos compared to the value offered by the shares in the latest Nugil SAS takeover bids. The information is 100% true.
However, a Word document entitled ‘Misleading information from SEMANA Magazine’ began to circulate among journalists, trying to deny what was published, but not officially, but underhanded.
When reviewing the metadata of the document, it was found that the author is Manuel Alejandro Valencia Zapata, coincidentally the Director of Communications for Grupo Argos.
This medium contacted Valencia Zapata, who assured that he was not the author of the attack against SEMANA. He said that he received this content through WhatsApp and saved it on his computer. He later acknowledged that he distributed it to his contacts, including business journalists.
This conduct conflicts with the ethical values of Grupo Argos. This company is fully entitled to clarify information that is published in the media and must do so through its official channels. The problem for Argos is that the information published by SEMANA is true.
Here is the article published by SEMANA:
Shareholders of Argos and Nutresa have lost more than 10 billion pesos due to takeover bids: who is responsible?
Due to decisions of the GEA, minority shareholders have been harmed. In a matter of weeks, the shareholders of Grupo Argos have lost 4.6 billion pesos in the face of the Nugil SAS takeover bid
The share of the cement conglomerate closed this Friday on the Colombian Stock Exchange (BVC) at 12,020 pesos, compared to about 19,000 pesos in the last takeover bid. The Grupo Argos share would have to rise 58% for the shareholders to recover the value they would have obtained in the takeover bid.
In the case of Nutresa, the figure is more alarming. Faced with the last takeover bid, also by Nugil SAS, nearly 6 billion pesos have been lost. The offer, which reached 51,500 pesos per share, compares with today’s closing on the BVC at 38,510 pesos.
Meanwhile, GEA managers have failed to keep their promises to the market. Neither the “strategic partner” for Nutresa nor the issuance of shares on the New York Stock Exchange of the United States subsidiary of Cementos Argos.
The ordinary share of Cementos Argos closed this Friday near its historical lows, at 3,800 pesos per share. The cement company has a market value of 5.17 billion pesos, while GEA directors said that its subsidiary in the United States alone could be worth 15 billion pesos. Who answers?
*Gabriel Gilinski is a shareholder of SEMANA Publications.