Colombia’s Grupo SURA posts 82% jump in Q4 net profit

BOGOTA (Reuters) – Net profit at Grupo SURA, Colombia’s largest investment company, rose by 81.9% in the fourth quarter of 2022 compared to the year earlier period, the firm said in a statement late on Tuesday.

The company posted a net profit of 688 billion pesos ($142 million) for the October to December period.

Total revenues in the quarter jumped 37.7% to 9.1 trillion pesos largely due to good levels of performance obtained by all of Suramericana’s insurance segments, the statement said.

“As a result of the diversification of the portfolio, the company managed to reflect in its results the good dynamics of the banking, food and infrastructure sectors,” it added.

Grupo SURA is made up of companies from the financial, insurance, industry, innovation and technology sectors with presence in Argentina, Colombia, Brazil, Chile, El Salvador, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Dominican Republic and Uruguay.

The company will seek permission from shareholders at an upcoming meeting on March 31 to perform a buy back operation to buy up to 300 billion pesos ($62.3 million) in shares over the next three years, it said.

Grupo SURA also authorized expanding an existing quota of ordinary bonds and commercial paper by 2 trillion pesos, which could be added to an existing placement, issued in 2014, and would take the total value to 4.3 trillion pesos.

“The authorization of the Board of Directors was granted in view of the fact that the program (issuance and placement) is close to expiration, however, Grupo SURA does not plan to perform issuances under to date,” the company said.

($1= 4,814.11 Colombian pesos)