Grupo Nutresa Files Criminal Complaints In Takeover Battle WIth Jaime Gilinski & IHC

Grupo Nutresa, parent company of Colombian CPG brands such as Jet, Matiz, Colcafé and Zenú, filed a criminal complaint with Colombia’s Attorney General last week for  irregularities in how the cases filed against the company by billionaire Jaime Gilinski’s Nugil and JGDB Holding were distributed in the courts, as the Superior Court of Bogotá on Wednesday ruled that the recusal of Grupo Nutresa against José Nicolás Mora was unfounded.

Four judicial officials were called by the Prosecutor’s Office on Tuesday for questioning due to the possible irregularities regarding the distribution of the civil lawsuits filed by Grupo Sura and Grupo Argos over the takeover process of Nutresa. The officials summoned to be questioned are Rafael Matos, Civil Judge 5 of the Oral Circuit of Medellín; the administrative assistants Mateo Flórez and Daniela Díaz; and the university professional Carlos Álvarez.

The Superior Court of Bogotá waded into the attempted takeover of Nutresa on Wednesday after it said that Nutresa’s recusal of the director of Corporate Jurisdiction I of the Superintendence of Companies, José Nicolás Mora, over his role in the takeover bid.

The Gilinski family already owns several businesses in Colombia

The attempt to disqualify Mora was due to his and his wife María Valentina Díaz’s link to the law firm Gómez Pinzón Abogados, which is the advisor of the International Holdings Company (IHC) in Colombia. The law firm had denied two members of Grupo Sura’s board of directors from participating in the analysis of the Nutresa takeover bid.

By Thursday, the Fifth Civil Judge of the Medellín Circuit also decided to allow Grupo Sura to keep the measure that stops the company’s legal representatives from executing orders or decisions that come from a board that has less than four members during the voting, likely a response from the Nutresa takeover attempt in November.

The Gilinski family has sued Nutresa after their attempted takeover bid for the company with IHC in November was not ratified in February due to there not being any quorum when only four members of the board decided to accept the bid that intended to sell shares to the company.

Gilinski’s attempts to take over Nutresa, Sura, and Argos has been going on for years in the apparent end goal of taking over the Grupo Empresarial Antioqueño (GEA). Gilinski’s companies and IHC has failed, however, to garner any significant majority in any of the three companies due to the refusal of the remaining investors to sell any of their shares to Gilinski.

Thus, Gilinski is now in the middle of a lawsuit battle with the remaining investors, one whose outcome for either side remains unclear in the future.