A 114% growth for the first half of this year provides further endorsement for GRUPO SURA's strategy in Latin America

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• USA - español

MEDELLIN, Colombia, July 27, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Yesterday, Grupo de Inversiones Suramericana - GRUPO SURA released its results for the second quarter this year, showing profits of COP 329,785 million (USD 184.8 million) for a growth of 114.0% compared to the same period last year. This positive balance reaffirms the strong performance of its investments and the Company's ongoing consolidation. The results posted by SURAMERICANA S.A., the Group's insurance and social security sub-holding and SURA Asset Management, its savings, pension and investment sub-holding were particularly noteworthy. At the end of the first half of this year both Companies continued to perform over and above initial expectations.

Financial revenues included dividends and interest from the Group's investments that reached COP 146,552 million (USD 80.7 million). Subsidiary revenues, posted via the equity method came to COP 151,245 million (USD 84.7 million).  SURAMERICANA S.A. provided COP 115,753 million (USD 65 million), with SURA Asset Management netting another COP 51,437 million (USD 27.1 million) from the consolidated profits obtained from its respective businesses totaling COP 200,944 million (USD 112.6 million) before amortizations, adjustments for exchange differences and interest.

"We are very pleased that our investments continue to provide the same level of positive results as they did earlier on this year. This only goes to show that the fundamentals of our principal strategic investments continue strong, and we are now seeing that not only are they companies in full growth mode, but they are also highly dynamic organizations that are successfully positioning themselves on a regional level" said David Bojanini, CEO of Grupo de Inversiones Suramericana - GRUPO SURA.

In addition to the above, other important highlights for this first half of the year included: GRUPO SURA's ordinary and preferred shares being included in the MSCI and FTSE Indices, these being important benchmarks for many international funds; the ratification of both investment grades given by Fitch Ratings and Standard & Poor's ratings agencies, last year; and the GRUPO SURA preferred share being registered with the ADR Level 1 program in the US.

All this has boosted trades of both our ordinary and preferred shares, which during this last second quarter averaged out at COP 14,979 million (USD 8.4 million) per day, with our market cap now running at COP 17.9 billion (USD 10.0 billion). Here it is important to mention that at the end of June, our shareholder base included 253 funds holding ordinary shares and another 142 holding preferred shares for a total of 395 funds holding an 11.7% stake in the Company.

It is also to be noted that GRUPO SURA continues to reduce its debt and dismantle the temporary loans acquired to finance the purchase of ING's Latin American assets. Consequently, the Company posted a more adequate debt ratio of 8.28% for this past second quarter, which is a positive step forward in returning to the same debt levels held prior to the acquisition carried out last year.

These excellent results for this past second quarter of 2012 confirm yet again the Company's robust investment portfolio and provide a significant endorsement for the leading position it enjoys on both the domestic as well as Latin American markets.

ABOUT GRUPO SURA

Stock exchange and tickers:
BVC: GRUPOSURA, PFGRUPSURA
ADR 1: GIVSY, GIVPY
Latibex: XGSUR

Grupo de Inversiones Suramericana –GRUPO SURA- is a Latin American company listed on the Colombian Stock Exchange and registered with the ADR- Level 1 program in the United States. It is also listed with the Latibex Market for Latin American Stocks in Euros hosted by the Madrid Stock Exchange. We are also one of the three companies from the Latin American financial service sector to be admitted to the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI), which monitors companies who have become global benchmarks thanks to the good practices they have adopted from the economic, environmental and social standpoints. GRUPO SURA has two fields of investment, the first being its strategic investments in the financial services, insurance, social security as well as complementary service sectors, and the second corresponds to its portfolio investments in the food, cement and energy sectors.

Media contact Information:

Luis Eduardo Martinez
Investor Relations Director
GRUPO SURA
(574) 4355628
[email protected]

Monica Guarin Montoya
Communications Manager
GRUPO SURA
(574) 4355935
[email protected]

SOURCE GRUPO SURA