Jaime Gilinski

Jaime Gilinski Bacal (born 14 December 1957) is a Colombian banker, real estate developer, and philanthropist. Gilinski currently resides in London. According to Forbes, he is the second richest person in Colombia and 431th in the world with a net worth of USD$3.9billion as of January 2017.

Gilinski earned his BS in Industrial Engineering from Georgia Tech in 1978, and an MBA from Harvard Business School in 1980.

In the 1990s Gilinski acquired the Colombian assets of BCCI (Bank of Credit and Commerce International) for a nominal sum after its global collapse. Renamed Banco Andino, it became one of the most efficient banks in the Colombian banking system within 4 years. The Gilinski Group sold the reconstituted bank for a reported US$70 million.

The family then moved to purchase Banco de Colombia for US $365 Million, in what was then the largest privatization in Colombia's history. A group of premier private equity investors led by Morgan Stanley Asset Management investing US$65 million, billionaire investor George Soros investing US$50 Million and Tiger Asset Management with US$35 million together with more than 100 other European and North American institutional investors co-invested with Gilinski. Later, the family sold control of the bank to Banco Industrial Colombiano, and its controlling stakeholder Sindicato Antioqueño, in a deal valued at US$800 Million — a transaction that ranks among Colombia’s largest. Gilinski received US$418 Million for its stake and retained a minority position in the new bank as part of the deal. As of 2011, Bancolombia was the largest bank in Colombia with a market capitalization of US $13 Billion in the NYSE.

In 2003, Gilinski acquired and subsequently merged Banco Sudameris and Banco Tequendema. This merger created GNB Sudameris, a bank with assets of over US $6 billion that ranks among the top 10 largest banks in Colombia. The purchase of Servibanca, an ATM network with over 2,000 machines, and Suma Valores, a stock exchange commission agent company, has further expanded the network.

On May 11, 2012, HSBC Holdings Plc announced the sale of its Latin American operations (Colombia, Peru, Paraguay, and Uruguay) to Banco GNB Sudameris for US $400 million in cash. HSBC has 62 branches in the four Latin American countries it is leaving - 24 in Peru, 20 in Colombia, 11 in Uruguay and seven in Paraguay. Following the purchase, GNB Sudameris will have consolidated assets of US $11 Billion.

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