The Shareholders' Meeting made several important decisions, including the distribution of profits. What is the company's status and outlook?
The Shareholders' Meeting of Cementos Argos, a Grupo Argos company, met on March 25, 2025, to make several decisions regarding the company's dividends, new members of the Board of Directors, and the spin-off of Grupo Sura.
Dividends for shareholders
The first of these was the distribution of $1 trillion in dividends for 2024, which represents a 70% increase compared to the previous year. Of this amount, 500 billion pesos correspond to a base dividend and the other 500 billion pesos to an extraordinary dividend.
"This recognizes the extraordinary results that Cementos Argos has been delivering to its shareholders with the completion of highly value-generating transactions that are transformational for the company's future," the company emphasized.
Both the base and extraordinary dividends contemplate a payment per share of $385 each, for a total of $770 per common share and preferred share.
This is how the Board of Directors was formed
The assembly also approved the appointment of the Board of Directors as follows:
- Jorge Mario Velásquez (assets)
- Alejandro Piedrahíta (heritage)
- Rafael Olivella (assets)
- Carlos Gustavo Arrieta (independent)
- Cecilia Rodríguez (independent)
- Carolina Soto (independent)
- León Teicher (independent)
Uncastling with Sura
Following the regular meeting, another extraordinary meeting was held, during which the partial spin-off by absorption project was approved. This will allow the company to dispose of Grupo Sura's stock portfolio for the benefit of its shareholders.
This portfolio is currently valued at $1.14 trillion.
As a result, Cementos Argos shareholders will receive approximately 0.021814 Grupo Sura shares for each Cementos Argos share they own.
"This spin-off will allow the company to concentrate its investments in the construction materials industry and aims to reveal the value of Grupo Sura's portfolio in Cementos Argos, which is not currently reflected in the market price of the stock," the company stated.
For the transaction to proceed, the project must be approved by the three companies involved: Grupo Sura, Grupo Argos, and Cementos Argos. Subsequently, approval will be sought from the Financial Superintendency.
The repurchase of shares in Cementos Argos
Cementos Argos SA continues to advance its SPRINT 3.0 program, with the award of its eighth repurchase offer for a total of $25 billion.
The cut-off price for common shares will be $10,200 pesos per share, allowing for the allocation of 2,450,980 shares for a total consideration of $24.999 billion.
Regarding the preferred stock price, the cut-off price will be $8,621. At this price, no shareholder acceptances were submitted, rendering the preferred stock offer void.
Thus, repurchases from the second share repurchase program total $251 billion, equivalent to 50.2% of the total program.
How is the buyback going?
In addition to the previous program, Cementos Argos SA has repurchased a total of $376 billion in both common and preferred shares since September 2023.
The company reaffirms its commitment through the execution of this offering and all the pillars that comprise the third version of the SPRINT program.
What is the SPRINT program?
- Dividend distribution of $1 billion in 2025.
- Disposition of Grupo Sura's stock portfolio.
- Profitability improvements, with ROCE between 14% and 15% by 2025 and an EBITDA margin exceeding 25% over the next two years.
- Continuation of the share buyback program, of which a balance of $280 billion remains to be executed.
- Ambition to become part of the standard section of the MSCI EM in the short term.
- Redeployment of capital in the United States market.
