Bernardo Vargas
Partner
As Partner of Nogal, Mr. Vargas has led various transactions including the advisory to Manuelita, Pantaleon and Unialco in the creation of a JV, advisory to CVCI-Citigroup in the valuation and sale of 29.5% of Cartones América, advisory to Grupo Manuelita in the valuation and sale of Armonia, and advisory to Valores Bavaria en the sale of Vikingos to Casa Luker.
Before founding Nogal in 2001, Mr. Vargas was a managing director with ING Barings responsible for the corporate and investment bank in Colombia. Mr. Vargas joined Baring Securities in 1994 as Head of the Andean Pact Region and was subsequently appointed as President and CEO for the merged operations of Barings and ING Colombia on January 1997. Mr. Vargas has an extensive experience in investment banking in Colombia and Latin America. He has participated in M&A transactions for Uniban, Bancolombia-BIC, Grupo Mayagüez, Central de Mezclas and Sanford Group among others.
Before joining ING Barings, Mr. Vargas acted as founding CEO of Proexport Colombia, the nation’s export promotion agency; CEO of Fiducoldex a local trust bank and Advisor to the Minister of Foreign Trade.
Previously he was Head of the External Financing and Foreign Reserves Department at the Colombian Central Bank (Banco de la República). In this position Mr. Vargas was responsible for managing the portfolio of Colombia’s foreign reserves of arround USD$ 5 bn.
Mr. Vargas obtained his MBA from Columbia University and has an Economics BA and MS candidate from Universidad de Los Andes, in Bogotá, Colombia.
Miguel Cortés
Partner
As Partner of Nogal, Mr. Cortes has led various transactions including the advisory to Davivienda in the acquisition of Granbanco/Bancafé for approximately US$1.000 million, the advisory in the valuation and sale of Granportuaria and AMG. In addition he has been advisor of many important Enterprise Groups like Grupo Manuelita.
Until May 2001 and for the previous 14 years, Mr. Cortés acted as CFO and Director of Grupo Bolívar. Grupo Bolívar is the 3rd largest banking and insurance conglomerate in Colombia with operations in Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador. As CFO, Mr. Cortés was responsible for all financing, M&A and investing activities of the Group.
In the M&A area, Mr. Cortés sold Davivir, a pension fund manager, to Banco Santander, has bought and sold several insurance and banking companies in Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador; merged Banco Davivienda and Delta, Finance Corporation; merged three insurance companies, Seguros Comerciales Bolívar, Aseguradora del Valle and Aseguradora El Libertador; sold Banco de Bogotá to Aval Group and sold 13% of Cementos Samper to CEMEX, amongst others.
Mr. Cortés obtained his MBA at Harvard Business School and his Economics undergraduate degree at Stanford University. Mr. Cortés is a California CPA, title acquired while working at Price Waterhouse, in San Francisco, California.
Renato Quesada
Project Director
As Project Director for Nogal, Mr. Quesada has participated in various transactions, including the advisory to Termoflores in the sale of 100% of the company, advisory to Davivienda in the acquisition of Granbaco/Bancafé and the advisory to CVCI in the sale of their participation in Cartones America. Additionally he has been advisor to important groups like Organizacion Corona and Grupo Neme.
Prior to joining Nogal, Mr. Quesada was Project Director in Corfivalle, the Largest Financial Corporation in Colombia (today Corficolombiana). He was responsible for a third of Corfivalle´s investments portfolio including companies such as Empresa de Energía de Bogotá – EEB, Hoteles Estelar, Colombina, Grupo Mayagüez and other.
From 2003 to 2005, Mr. Quesada was Assistant Manager at Rothschild London. At that time he worked for various clients exclusively on M&A activities within different sectors such as leisure, transport, telecoms, property (real-estate), hotels and retail. He was responsible for market analysis, financial valuation, identification of potential opportunities and marketing activities. From 1999 to 2003, Mr. Quesada was Financial Analyst at Rothschild Colombia, where he was mainly involved in public finance and M&A advisories within the energy and telecoms sector. His roles included financial valuation, preparation of marketing materials including information memorandums, data room administration/due diligence and contact/follow up with potential investors.
Mr. Quesada has a degree in Business Administration from Colegio de Estudios Superiores de Administración – CESA, Bogotá – Colombia.
Lina Marcela Barón
Project Director
As Project Director for Nogal, Ms. Barón has parcipated in M&A projects, financial projects of capital structuring and structuring of financial instruments for the capital markets. It stands out, during 2006 and 2007, her participation in the financing with IFC of a “greenfield” sucroalcolero in Brasil, at the same time she has led the structuring of titularizaciones. Additionally she has been advisor to important enterprise groups like Organizacion Corona and Grupo Neme.
Prior to joining Nogal, Ms. Barón was Project Director at BRC Investor Services (Rating Agency), responsible for rating processes of financial institutions including banks, trusts, security firms and pension funds. BRC Investor Services is a former affiliate of Bankwatch Ratings, one of the two rating agencies that operate in Colombia. Ms. Barón was also involved in rating structured capital markets instruments including securitizations and senior bonds. She was also responsible for non performing loans (NPL) securitization TECH2 and guaranteed bond issues of leasing companies, among others. She worked at BRC from 2003 to 2005.
From 1999 to 2003 Ms. Barón worked at different positions within the financial division of Leasing Bolivar. As a Director of the Risk and Financial Planning Department (during the last two years), she was responsible, among others, of developing and implementing the risk administration procedures and risk administration system for the company and financial evaluation of projects.
Ms. Barón has a degree in Industrial Engineering from Universidad de Los Andes, Bogotá – Colombia. She also has a Diploma on Postgraduate Studies in Finance from the same University.
Ana María Giraldo
Project Director
As Project Director for Nogal, Ms. Giraldo has coordinated several projects such as the structuring of M&A deals within the following sectors: building materials, mobile communication , medical supplies and consumer goods among others. She has also participated in the capital structure and indebtedness capacity analysis for various types of companies. In addition she has participated in advisories to important enterprise groups like Organizacion Corona, Grupo Mundial, and other enterprise groups in the Andean Region.
Prior to joining Nogal Ms Giraldo was Financial Analyst in Incorbank –Investment Bankers, where she was responsible for activities such as financial valuation, corporate clients relationships and marketing activities. Some of the advisories include clients like Federacion Nacional de Arroceros, Banco de Bogotá, Banco de Occidente, Instituto de Seguros Sociales, Almacenar and other companies within industries such as agro industrials, ports, minerals, services restaurants) among others. She stands out for her participation in the valuation and selling of shareholdings in local utilities and telecommunication companies. She was also involved in the valuation and analysis of governmental concessions.
Ms. Giraldo has a degree in Business Administration from Politecnico Grancolombiano, Bogotá – Colombia. She has also a diploma on postgraduated studies in Corporate Finance from Colegio de Estudios Superiores de Administración – CESA, Bogotá – Colombia.
Felipe Galvis
Senior Analyst
Prior to becoming a part of Nogal’s team, Mr. Galvis was Project Director at Valor & Estrategia Investment Bank where he led diverse M&A and consulting projects. Mr. Galvis developed various Value Based Management implementations, company valuations and optimal capital structure definitions in the food, dairy, construction, transport, cement, energy and insurance industries in Colombia.
Major projects in which he participated include the valuation of the Social Security Institute’s business lines, the structuring of a major investment project for Sociedad Portuaria del Norte and the Value Based Management implementations at Grupo Argos, Isagén, Procafecol (Juan Valdez), Brinsa, Avesco (Kokoriko) and Enertolima among others.
During 2005, Mr. Galvis worked at Procter & Gamble Colombia where he made an internship as part of the Costumer Team Logistics area.
Mr. Galvis is an industrial engineer from Universidad de Los Andes (Bogotá, Colombia).
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Bernardo Vargas |
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Miguel Cortés |
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Renato Quesada |
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Lina Marcela Barón |
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Ana María Giraldo |
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Felipe Galvis |
