Bancolombia to Propose Up to $2.4 Billion Share Sale at Meeting

Bancolombia SA (BCOLO), Colombia’s largest bank, will propose a preferred stock sale of up to $2.4 billion at its March 4 shareholders meeting.

The board of directors seeks shareholder approval to sell up to 148.2 million of preferred shares, to be issued in one or several tranches, according to the proposal on the bank’s website. The board may decide to sell the shares in the local market or abroad, according to the statement, which wasn’t dated.

The share sale would represent about 4.3 trillion pesos at the preferred shares’ closing price today of 29,000 pesos, down 2.7 percent from yesterday.

Bancolombia agreed to pay $2.1 billion for HSBC Holdings Plc’s Panama unit in its biggest-ever acquisition, it said on Feb. 19. Chief Executive Officer Carlos Yepes said in a Feb. 26 radio interview that the bank was considering a share sale to meet new global banking regulations and for its future expansion plans.

To contact the reporter on this story: Christine Jenkins in Bogota at cjenkins28@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: David Papadopoulos at papadopoulos@bloomberg.net