Gilinski is the majority owner of Colombia-based Grupo Nutresa SA, Latin America's top packaged foods producer. He initially made his fortune from the finance industry and private equity investments. Gilinski is a shareholder and board member of Banco GNB Sudameris, a Bogota-based bank. In 1994, he led the purchase of Colombia's biggest bank from the government, before selling it in 1997.
Gilinski's fortune is derived mostly of proceeds from investments in private equity, finance and banking that he's been making since the 1990s.
He owns 82% of publicly-traded Grupo Nutresa SA through wholly-owned holding companies JGDB Holding and Nugil, according to a June 2025 shareholder filing.
Gilinski owns a 99.8% stake in Bogota-based Banco GNB Sudameris through holding company Gilex, according to business registry filings. Banco GNB Sudameris had 55 trillion pesos ($12.5 billion) in assets as of December 2024, and is valued using its reported 2024 book value of 4.3 trillion pesos and the average price-to-book value multiple of four publicly traded peer companies: Bancolombia, Davivienda, Banco de Bogota and Banco Internacional del Peru. A 15% discount is applied to account for the bank's smaller size compared to the peers.
Gilinski pledged about half of his stake in Banco GNB Sudameris as security for a $345 million loan, according to Luxembourg business registry filings. His full shareholding is included in the net worth analysis and the loan is listed as a separate liability.
He and his father, Isaac, each collected $418 million after leading a group of investors that bought Colombia's biggest bank from the government in 1994. They sold their 51% stake in what became Bancolombia in 1997, according to a statement on the bank's website.
He also owns a 53% stake in British lender Metro Bank, according to its 2024 annual report. Gilinski sold a 49.9% stake in Lulo Bank to International Holding Co. in October 2022. His remaining stake of 45% is valued based on the carrying amount as of Dec. 31, 2024 reported in IHC's annual report.
The value of his cash holding is based on an analysis of dividends, reinvestments and market performance.
Gilinski declined to comment on his net worth through a press advisor at public relations firm Burston-Marsteller.
Born in Cali, Colombia in 1957, Jaime Gilinski is the only son of the Gilinski Bacal family. He studied at Georgia Institute of Technology and earned a master's of business administration from Harvard University. He worked at the mergers and acquisitions unit of Morgan Stanley before returning home to Colombia.
Under the wing of his father Isaac, Gilinski sought out private equity-style deals, such as the purchase of BCCI's Colombia unit after the bank collapsed in 1991. They bought Colombia's biggest bank from the government in 1994 after assembling an investment group that included U.S. billionaire George Soros. The group sold it three years later. Gilinski bought Sudameris in 2003 from Italian bank Intesa Sanpaolo, and fused it with Servibanca and Banco Tequendama, which he bought from Peru's Banco del Credito. Sudameris paid about $400 million to purchase Latin American assets of HSBC in 2012.
He most recently teamed up with Ian and Richard Livingstone for a real estate project in Panama.