UPDATE 1-Colombia's Grupo SURA reports Q4 net profit down 41% after Nutresa divestment

(Adds details from statement)

Feb 29 (Reuters) - Grupo SURA, one of Colombia's largest investment companies, on Thursday posted a fourth-quarter net profit down 41% after it divested its stake in food processing firm Nutresa and sold operations in Argentina and El Salvador. Net profit for the last three months of 2023 was down to 405.9 billion pesos ($103 million), SURA said, even as revenues climbed 7% to 9.03 trillion pesos as premiums and commissions grew.

Jaime Gilinski, one of Colombia's richest men, last May

agreed to exit

the stake held by his Grupo Gilinski conglomerate in Grupo SURA, in exchange for a controlling stake of at least 87% in Nutresa.

SURA also said that its insurance subsidiary Suramericana's sale of its units in Argentina and El Salvador in the fourth quarter had caused a loss of 119.36 billion pesos on taxes, impairment costs and transaction expenses.

SURA is a part of what is informally known as GEA, the country's largest conglomerate made up of over a hundred firms across all sectors in a complex shareholding arrangement that involves many internal partnerships.

($1 = 3,933.56 Colombian pesos) (Reporting by Kylie Madry; Editing by Sarah Morland)