Highlighted by Bloomberg: “Major Shareholders Engage in a Bidding War for the Company”
“Bloomberg” has recently highlighted us in an article. Translation by Sun Valley Investments.
Sun Valley responded to Negocios y Representaciones’ public tender offer with a new bid featuring a 14% price increase, aiming to gain control of more than half of the Colombian company’s shares.
Bogotá — Mineros S.A.’s two largest shareholders remain locked in a fierce battle to present the best offer and secure control of the Antioquia-based company.
In response to the tender offer submitted by Negocios y Representaciones, Sun Valley—controlled by Indian investor Vikram Sodhi—launched a competing bid with a 14% higher price, aiming to secure a majority stake in the company.
Sun Valley’s stake has been steadily increasing since April last year. By December 2024, the firm had already launched a tender offer that secured it 30.85% of the shares. It started this year with a new bid offering COP 4,600 per share. However, analysts such as those from Davivienda Corredores recommended against selling, as the stock’s growth potential, combined with the expectation of strong dividends, made the offered price less attractive.
Who’s Who in the Bidding War?
After Sun Valley’s first tender offer in 2025, Negocios y Representaciones, Mineros’ second-largest shareholder (12.57%), presented a counteroffer, improving on the COP 4,600 bid made by the Indian investor.
The counteroffer was submitted by the Moreno Echavarría family and proposed a payment of COP 4,835 per share, about COP 235 more than the foreign investors’ offer.
Negocios y Representaciones is a corporation established on July 10, 1976, as Negocios y Representaciones Ltda. by Alfonso Moreno Jaramillo (100 shares), María del Pilar Echavarría de Moreno (450 shares), and Miguel Octavio Moreno Echavarría (450 shares).
Recently, the company has been controlled by Alfonso Moreno Echavarría, a professor and investor based in Oxford, born on October 11, 1972. On December 20, 2019, he reported that he exercised control over Negocios y Representaciones, a company with a net worth of COP 282 billion as of December 31, 2023.
However, the largest shareholder today is Miguel Octavio Moreno Echavarría, who owns 90% of the shares following an inheritance process in 2021, as the sole heir of María del Pilar Echavarría Ramírez.
Vikram Sodhi’s New Tender Offer
The Financial Superintendency received a request for authorization for a new competing public tender offer for Mineros’ common shares.
The purchase price per share will be COP 5,500, payable in cash or its equivalent in U.S. dollars.
The public tender offer aims to acquire a minimum amount equivalent to 0.00000033% of the shares and a maximum of 26%.
This represents a maximum amount of COP 428,624 million. Accordingly, acceptances for the improved offer must be submitted within a period of 10 business days, from the start of the acceptance period, i.e., between March 5 and March 18, 2025.
What’s the Recommendation?
Currently, Sun Valley holds a 30.85% stake in the company’s total outstanding shares.
Sun Valley aims to secure a percentage that would grant it a majority on the company’s board of directors, driving the increase in the offered price to COP 5,500.
Unlike previous tender offers, this time Davivienda Corredores recommends participating and selling, as they deem it likely that at this price—or a higher one, should additional competing offers arise—the necessary stake to secure control of the company will be achieved.
Additionally, their recommendation is based on the fact that while the offered price still does not reflect the company’s fair value, it is much closer to the brokerage firm’s fair value estimate (COP 6,000 per share).
Lastly, it is important to note that additional competing offers cannot be ruled out. However, under current regulations, once the first notice of a competing offer is published, acceptances of the previous offer will automatically apply to the new offer. Therefore, if someone accepts the current offer, their order will be included in the subsequent ones.
Who Is Vikram Sodhi?
Vikram Sodhi is a private investor with over 20 years of experience in the investment world.
Throughout his career, he has specialized in investment strategies in leveraged buyouts, restructuring, and growth across the metallurgy, mining, affordable housing, and fintech sectors.
Sodhi is a partner, manager, and co-founder of Sun Valley Investments, a private investment firm focused on metals and mining. He is also the executive chairman of Goldlogic Corp, a precious metals investment company with a fast-growing model for financing producers and developers in their refining needs.
Through this company, he provides initial financing for the working capital needs of precious metals producers. Together with its subsidiaries, it manages assets exceeding USD 600 million and invests in developers and producers of precious metals in production or advanced development stages.
Additionally, Sodhi has co-founded several venture capital funds in the United States, Latin America, and India, overseeing over USD 2 billion in transactions involving metals, mining, and affordable housing. He has raised more than USD 1 billion in institutional capital from sovereign wealth funds, foundations, endowments, and insurance companies.
Sodhi studied at Yale University, where he received a full international scholarship and conducted neuroscience research at the School of Medicine. He is a member of Yale’s President’s Council on International Activities and a Sterling Fellow of the university.
For its part, Sun Valley Investments is a private investment firm focused on the precious metals mining industry, with portfolio companies and branches in the Americas, Europe, and Asia. The company finances the entire precious metals supply chain: mining exploration, mine construction, production, processing, and refining.
Read the original article in Spanish on Bloomberg:
Original article by Daniel Guerrero published on March 5, 2025, in Bloomberg.