Following a request from Jaime Gilinski, the main shareholder of Grupo Sura, the the company’s statutory auditor, EY, called an extraordinary meeting of shareholders, for next week.
As it transpired the meeting would be held next Wednesday, August 24, at 10 in the morning at the Medellin Marriott Hotel.
The banker who owns 38% of the shares of the financial holding company wants EY to explain the scope of a series of contracts signed by Sura since 2001.
Gilinski pointed to the existence of three “complex agreements” with minority partners in some subsidiaries, such as Suramericana and Sura Asset Management, which could cause liabilities of several billion pesos. One is with Munich Re, another with Caisse De Dépôt Et Placement Du Québec and another with Grupo Bolívar and its affiliates.
These agreements with minority investors would generate the obligation of repurchase by the parent company. One of the discussions is whether these contracts should be treated as a liability, since it would have an impact on the company and, according to experts, so far they have not been treated as such.
At the meeting requested by Gilinski, consideration will be given to “ordering the company’s board of directors so that in the next 30 calendar days it appoints and hires Deloitte, PricewaterhouseCoopers and/or KPMG as external auditor to: carry out an exhaustive review of the accounting and financial impact that may have, for Grupo Sura SA, the agreements signed with Grupo Bolívar, Munich RE and CDPQ”.
Also, the meeting will identify the possible existence of other similar agreements or contractssubscribed by the Sura Group that have not been properly and timely disclosed in the company’s financial statements during the last twenty years.