Colombia’s largest financial holding company, Grupo de Inversiones Suramericana SA, plans to sell 250 billion Colombian pesos (US$127 million) worth of local bonds Wednesday to finance the acquisition of the investment portfolio from its insurance unit.
Grupo Suramericana will offer the bonds with maturities of 10, 20 and 40 years, the company said in an advertisement published in La Republica newspaper.
The 40-year bonds would be the bonds with the longest maturity ever sold in Colombia. The current longest bonds are the 32-year dollar-denominated bonds sold by the government last month.
Suramericana is ready to pay inflation plus a spread of 5.4 percentage points on the 10-year bonds, inflation rate plus 6.7 percentage points on the 20-year bonds and inflation plus 8 percentage points on the 40-year bonds.
With the bond sale’s proceeds, the company plans to buy the minority stakes the insurance company Suramericana holds in several listed Colombian companies such as Colombia’s largest bank, Bancolombia SA, the nation’s largest food company, Grupo Nacional de Chocolates SA, and the country’s largest cement maker, Cementos Argos SA, among others, Grupo Suramericana’s Chief Financial Officer Andres Bernal said earlier this month.
Suramericana’s portfolio is worth about COP240 billion at current market price.
Bancolombia’s brokerage unit, and local brokerages Serfinco and Interbolsa SA, will handle the sale. (Dow Jones)