UPDATE 1-Colombia's Grupo Aval swings to loss in fourth quarter

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March 3 (Reuters) - Colombian financial conglomerate Grupo Aval reported a fourth-quarter net loss of 330.4 billion pesos ($68 million) Friday, reversing the strong profit it recorded a year earlier.

This came even as the company reported interest income for the three months ending Dec. 31 up 85% to 6.14 trillion pesos.

Aval said that interest expenses had more than tripled from a year earlier, reaching 4.38 trillion pesos for the quarter, and bringing the group's quarterly net interest income down 12%.

This comes after Colombia's central bank board raised its benchmark interest rate by 75 basis points to 12.75%

in January

, its highest since 1999 as the South American country continues to battle high inflation.

Aval said it was also hit by a 678 billion peso loss in the quarter due to subsidiary Banco de Bogota's mid-December sale of a 21% stake in its Central American unit, BAC Holding International Corp (BHI).

Banco de Bogota had

spun off the majority of its stake

in BHI in March, but the December tender offer left it with a holding of just 4.11% at the year's end.

Aval said it had also sustained losses from a shift in Banco de Bogota's foreign exchange position after the spin-off.

The conglomerate, whose portfolio also includes Colombian lenders Banco Popular, Banco AV Villas and Banco de Occidente, also saw its return on average equity (ROAE) for the quarter flip to -8% from nearly 14% a year earlier.

($1= 4,855.83 Colombian pesos) (Reporting by Kylie Madry and Noe Torres; Editing by Sarah Morland)