The acquisition of the shares of the Colombian Success Group by the Salvadoran conglomerate Calleja was one of the most important operations in the region in 2023, according to the annual report on Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), published Thursday by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (Cepal).
The United Nations agency notes that 370 operations were completed in Latin America and the Caribbean by the end of 2023, exceeding $25,959 million.
In the top 20 mergers and acquirers, the operation led by Grupo Calleja, owner of the Super Selectos chain, was the sixth largest in the Latin American region, valued at $1.17 billion.
Grupo Calleja concluded last January the purchase of 86.51 percent of the share capital of the supermarket chain Success, the largest in Colombia, whose portfolio also includes the operation of Grupo Disco in Uruguay and Libertad in Argentina.
At the end of the acquisition, the Salvadoran businessman Carlos Calleja Hakker assumed the executive presidency of Grupo Eucto, thefirst foreigner to run the conglomerate Colombian founded in 1949.
This transaction, which began with a reduction in capital in the Colombian group in the second quarter of 2023, is part of the French group’s debt restructuring plan and included the trading of shares of other assets in the region, highlights Cepal’s report.
Top regional operations
The Salvadoran group is surpassed by the acquisition of EDP Brasil by Energías de Portugal, valued at $3,933 million; Emeis Holdings in Brazil by the French L.Oréal, amounting to $2.525 million; and Derco in Chile by the British Inchcape, in an operation of $1.555 million.
There is also the German Talanx that acquired Liberty Mutual Insurance in Brazil, for $1.478 million; and the American Darling Ingredients with the Brazilian Gelnex Industry and Commerce, for $1.2 billion.
According to Cepal, of the first 10 acquisitions and mergers, only Grupo Calleja is of Latin American capital, while the rest corresponds to investments from Portugal, France, the United Kingdom, Germany and the United States.
If only mergers and acquisitions carried out by translatin companies are analyzed, Calleja concretized last year the most important operation. It is also the only Central American group on the small list, dominated by Brazil, Peru, Trinidad and Tobago, Chile and Colombia.
Calleja’s operation alone contributed 33 percent of the movement of assets in the Latin American trade sector, which turns El Salvador into the main origin of mergers and acquisitions in the region.
This article has been translated after first appearing in Diario El Mundo