With Riot Police Present At Shareholders’ Meeting, Sura, Nutresa & GEA Defeat Gilinski & The Abu Dhabi Prince — For Now

The latest chapter in the epic battle between Cali-born Colombian Billionaire Jaime Gilinski and the Medellín business community colloquially known as Grupo Empresarial Antioqueño (GEA) has come to a close for the time being, with shareholders of insurance conglomerate Sura, and consumer packaged goods company Nutresa, both Medellín based, successfully rejecting the latest hostile takeover attempt by Gilinksi and his ally, Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan of Abu Dhabi.

Gilinski has been trying to wrest control of Medellín’s most emblematic companies from the close knit Paisa (people from Medellín & surrounding region) business community since at least 2021. There is animosity between Gilinski and the Paisas dating back to when he lost control of the predecessor of Bancolombia—also Medellín based. The Paisas say this was due to the emergency caused by the Asian Financial Crisis, Gilinski seems to think he was the victim of dirty dealing.

With the Sheikh’s backing, Gilinksi has mounted a salvo of hostile takeover attempts for several of the companies in the GEA network, but the Paisas have been able up until now, to fend him off, though it has been close. Gilinski has launched multiple tender offers, but the Paisa shareholders have been unwilling to sell to him at any price.

On March 21^st, Paisa food company and GEA member Nutresa held its ordinary shareholders assembly, where a proposal was approved to extend Nutresa’s current board of directors for one year, keeping Gilinski from taking control but triggering extraordinary assemblies being called for Argos and Sura, since there is significant cross ownership and board of directors representation between the companies, after Colombia’s corporations regulator blocked Argos & Sura legal representatives from voting their shares in Nutresa, citing conflict of interest. Because of this, shareholder assemblies had to be called for formal votes.

It is important to point out that the GEA is an informal business network with common interests and overlapping ownership rather than a legally defined entity. The major companies own shares in each other, and control is shared through voting shares and corporate boards. This is known as the Grupo Empresarial Antioqueño (GEA) informally, but such a structure does not exist legally.

Friday, in Plaza Mayor, Medellín’s primary public plaza and convention facility, the mood outside of the shareholders’ meeting was more like a rowdy soccer match, with employees of Sura and Nutresa gathered en masse, with placards and chants telling Gilinski to go back where he came from, and to leave the GEA alone. The atmosphere was so raucous that Colombia’s ESMAD riot police showed up, to the indignation of GEA employees present.

Friday morning, various generals of Paisa enterprise were gathered and ready to confront Gilinski and his team. Carlos Ignacio Gallego of Grupo Nutresa, Ignacio Calle of Sura, David Correa of Protección (pensión fund), and Jorge Mario Velásquez of Grupo Argos were in position. Sura’s meeting was scheduled for 8am, but Gilinski tried to make a move by calling another extraordinary assembly to elect Nutresa’s board of directors at 7:55am, which would conflict with the Sura meeting. Only representation of 5 million shares, or just over 1%, not enough for a quorum, heeded Gilinski’s call so the meeting failed.

At 8am the Sura shareholders’ meeting began, with an unexpected turn of events as retired president of Bancolombia and veteran of the GEA war with Gilinski took to the microphone as the owner of a single share of Sura. He gave a stirring speech in support of the GEA (though he denied its existence) and urged Gilinski to in so many words, leave Medellín alone.

Once it was time to count the votes, the crowd cheered and applauded votes in favor of the GEA, and jeered and booed when any votes for Gilinski were counted, again more like a sporting match than a corporate shareholder’s meeting.

At the meeting’s climax, Sura shareholders approved the measure enabling the company’s legal representative to vote the company’s shares in Nutresa, once again, keeping the Gilinski crew from taking control of any of the GEA companies.

After losing the battle, Gilinski spoke in a conciliatory tone, thanking “the people who work at Grupo Sura for the effort they have made. I want to thank [President] Gonzalo, the administration, and the board of directors for so many hours of effort because it has been a difficult year.

“I’ll be back!”—Arnold Schwarzenegger in The Terminator

Though Gilinski has lost a major battle, the war may not be over. He is still a significant shareholder in GEA companies. On April 11, shareholders of Nutresa will meet to elect its board of directors. The Paisas may have the upper hand with Friday’s empowerment of Sura’s Legal Representative, but nothing is certain, especially in this corporate drama that could potentially reshape Colombia’s business landscape, and most certainly that of Medellín’s Aburrá Valley.

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