This week, Bancolombia Capital is celebrating its second anniversary, a period that, according to Juan Felipe Giraldo, CEO of the entity, has been marked by advancements in assets and customers. The leader, in Inside LR, commented on the balance and the entity’s offerings, along with a summary of the current investment landscape.
How many clients do you have after two years of operations?
Bancolombia Capital is now an entity with around 800 clients, and we expect in the coming years to have an operation that doubles that figure, but we are not in the tens of thousands nor aiming for millions of clients.
Are you expecting to increase that number of clients?
More than the number of clients, our growth driver is the volume of assets under management and, as I mentioned earlier, we believe that in the first months of the year 2025 we will be able to talk about US$1 trillion.
What is the profile of the client that the company seeks?
There can be two types of intentions when one comes to Bancolombia Capital as a client; the first can be to protect capital and the second can be to see that capital grow to some degree. Some people want to see it grow a little, while others want to see aggressive growth.
What is the minimum investment that these clients make?
We aim to have accounts starting from US$500,000; however, there are products that have lower amounts.
What age range are the clients primarily?
Most are over 50 years old; clearly, the level of account amounts leads us to think that the professional and business moment of each of our clients occurs a bit later than that age, although it does not mean we do not have younger clients.
What is the entity’s balance in its two years?
We have grown exponentially, we have nearly multiplied by seven the volume of assets under management we had at the end of 2022, it is an operation that is already approaching about US$800 million under management from our clients.
How do you project the closing of this year?
With the figures we are seeing and the potential business we have, we can be adding about US$150 million or US$200 million more by the end of this year. Clearly, business is very changeable, and this is no exception, but I think with the growth rate it is an achievable number.
How did the entity reach abroad and what was the process?
It was a complicated process, where we had to utilize a number of corporate capabilities to inform the American authorities what we wanted to do and to obtain the necessary licenses. It took approximately a year, and we started from scratch.
THE PROFILE
Juan Felipe Giraldo, CEO of Bancolombia Capital, has been part of Grupo Bancolombia for 25 years, during which he has held multiple leadership positions, such as VP of strategy, VP of sales, and general director of Valores Bancolombia. In 2022, he assumed the position of general director at Bancolombia Capital. From these positions, he has led the international investment strategy of Grupo Bancolombia. Additionally, he oversaw the opening of the Panama operation (Valores Banistmo) in 2005 and the operation based in the United States (Bancolombia Capital) in 2022.