Colombian companies negotiated share deals worth $4.4 billion in the final six months of 2011, more than any other South American country.
Grupo de Inversiones Suramericana offered $1.8 billion in order to finance the purchase of ING assets in November.
In July, the state-run oil company Ecopetrol offered $1.3 billion in shares in order to fund the reconstruction works to repair damage from the winter rains flooding.
In September, Almacenes Exito raised $1.3 billion in its share sale to fund domestic and international expansion.
The combined worth of the deals exceeds those made by Brazil, the biggest economy in South America, which only made equity deals worth $1.6 billion during 2011’s second semester, according to the Financial Times blog.
Alberto Fernandez, vice-president of Brazilian bank Itau BBA, rated the best in South America’s by financial publication America Economia, said “Colombia is reaching significant levels of growth since the establishment of political stability, as well as having adopted the macroeconomic ‘tripod’ of setting and policing inflation goals with low interest rates, floating exchange rates, and fiscal responsibility.”
