This document may contain future disclosures related to Grupo SURA and its subsidiaries, which have been made based on management assumptions and estimates, and which may vary.
Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining Grupo SURA's earnings call. Today's presentation will be divided into two sections. First, we will discuss the company's results as well as its strategic results since the Investors Day. Second, a live Q&A session. Joining us today from Grupo SURA are Ricardo Jaramillo, President of Grupo SURA; Juana Francisca Llano, President of Suramericana; Ignacio Calle, President of SURA Asset Management; Juan Esteban Toro, Vice President of Corporate Finance of Grupo SURA; and María Adelaida Restrepo, Vice President of Corporate Legal Affairs of Grupo SURA. We also have Carlos Vallejo, Vice President of Finance, Financial Risk, and Administrative Services of SURA Asset Management, and Manuel Rojas, Vice President of Finance of Suramericana. We remind you that you may ask questions during the call, and they will be answered at the end.
Now, I will hand it over to Ricardo.
Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. At Grupo SURA, we have been taking important steps guided by a clear purpose, executing our strategy, and together with our subsidiaries, building the financial group we aspire to become in the future. A year ago, at our Investors Day, we shared our ambitions for the company through 2028. Today, we are able to demonstrate tangible results in that direction and highlight the progress made across our various strategic objectives. As of September, we delivered solid operating performance, high profitability, and a strong financial position. These achievements bring us closer to targets, and on certain metrics, allow us to make progress ahead of schedule.
This trajectory is supported by a group of strong business leaders, solid businesses, growth opportunities, and clear priorities going forward. This is why we are joined today by the leaders of Suramericana and SURA Asset Management, who will share their main strategic priorities and explain how they contribute to our vision for the group. Our presentation today will be divided into four sections. In the first section, we will provide an overview of Grupo SURA's consolidated results and the main developments as of September 2026, including progress on our share repurchase program and the results of the Merco Corporate Reputation Survey. In the second section, Juana Francisca Llano will take a closer look at Suramericana's strategic priorities and key action plans. Ignacio Calle will share the strategic vision and priorities guiding the development of SURA Asset Management.
Finally, as usual, Juan Esteban Toro will provide a more detailed review of Grupo SURA's consolidated results and their various components. Let us begin with Grupo SURA. As of September, our businesses continued to deliver solid results with a higher profitability and strengthened financial structure. Cumulative net income attributable to controlling shareholders reached COP 2.3 trillion, representing 11.5% growth compared to the comparable 2025 base, which excludes the non-recurring effects related to the spin-off of Argos Grupo . This growth reflects the strength of our operating performance, particularly when taking into account two significant factors affecting this year's results. First, the wealth tax reduced net income attributable to controlling shareholders by COP 227 billion. Excluding this impact, net income would have grown by more than 22%.
In addition, we saw negative returns on legal reserves during the third quarter, following the particularly strong gains recorded in the second quarter. Even after absorbing these effects, we achieved double-digit growth in comparable net income, demonstrating the strength of our results and putting us in a very strong position to meet our year-end targets. In this context, adjusted ROE reached 15.4% over the last 12 months, up 1.6 percentage points compared with September last year, and 4.10 percentage points compared with the same quarter in 2024. This evolution confirms a sustained trend towards higher levels of profitability and reflects the progress we have made on our strategic priorities, as well as the group's earnings power. Additionally, as announced last quarter, we continued to make progress during this period in implementing our capital optimization initiatives.
As a result, we reduced corporate net debt by COP 1 trillion during the quarter, bringing it down to approximately COP 6 trillion, and improving our net debt to dividends received ratio to 2.4x at the end of September. These developments provide us with greater financial flexibility to continue pursuing our shareholder value creation priorities, including the share repurchase program that we have already launched. The strength of these results puts us in a very favorable position as we approach the end of 2026 and enables us to make significant progress toward the medium-term performance targets we shared with the market a year ago. In the first nine months of the year, we achieved the net income figure originally projected for the full 2026 and generated earnings equivalent to the 2025 net income.
This performance is particularly important given that 2026 has unfolded against a mixed macroeconomic environment with some regulatory effects. Against this backdrop, our businesses have demonstrated considerable robustness, maintaining a positive profitability growth trajectory and showing their ability to deliver consistent results even in challenging environments. Based on these results and the trends we are seeing for the fourth quarter, we are raising our full-year 2026 net income guidance to a range between COP 2.7 trillion to COP 2.9 trillion, or earnings per share between COP 8,300 to COP 8,900, which would translate into an ROE of between 16% and 17%, representing the level of profitability above our cost of capital. This year-end outlook means that we have achieved approximately 62% of the earnings growth required to reach our 2028 ambition of approximately COP 3.3 trillion in net income.
This operating and financial performance has been accompanied by a better trading liquidity for our shares in the market. Average daily trading volume increased to approximately COP 17 trillion in 2026, more than 5x the level recorded in 2023. Today, our shares are considerably more liquid and benefit from greater market depth in both the ordinary or common and the preferred shares classes. This increased liquidity is attracting a broader investor base, including both active and passive investors. One example is the recovery of a participation in international funds, which increased from 1% to 9%. Although this remains below historical levels of approximately 20%, it represents significant progress. We will continue working to broaden and diversify our shareholder base and strengthen our visibility in international capital markets. This also contributes to a better price formation. Our share performance has been favorable since the spin-off.
Over this period, the ordinary share has appreciated 68%, and the preferred share 66%, compared with 41% growth in the COLCAP Index. The performance of our businesses, together with our capital optimization initiatives, has already translated into tangible value for our shareholders. Taken together, share price appreciation and the dividends paid represent more than COP 10 trillion of value generated over the last year. Going forward, our focus will be to sustain this performance and maintain disciplined capital allocation, preserving our capacity to keep growing and generating returns for our shareholders. The strengthening of our financial position allows us to allocate capital toward opportunities we consider attractive. One of them is the share repurchase program we began executing October. Why do we see value in this alternative? One reference point is the multiples at which our shares trade.
In numbers, as of November 5th, the preferred share trades at 6.8x the expected 2026 earnings, and the ordinary share at 9.1x . These levels remain below those of comparable companies in the sectors in which we participate, which trade at more than 11x the earnings. The repurchase program has an approved amount of up to COP 500 billion and will remain in effect until March 2028. In October, we began by repurchasing 892,000 shares, equivalent to 11% of the approved amount, of which 54% were preferred shares and 46% were ordinary shares. The repurchase also benefits those who remain as shareholders. As the number of shares outstanding decreases, the proportional stake in the company's earnings and equity increases, which is reflected in metrics such as earnings per share and book value per share.
Execution of the program will remain disciplined and selective, taking into account market conditions and the different capital allocation opportunities available at any given time, with the aim of generating sustainable value for shareholders over the long term. In this way, the repurchase complements the initiatives we have been carrying out to drive profitability growth, strengthen our financial position, and generate attractive returns for shareholders. To close this first part, we would like to highlight the recognition that we value especially and that at the same time reaffirms our responsibility to keep building trust every day. In the latest edition of Merco Empresas, the benchmark indicator of corporate reputation in Colombia, SURA ranked as the fourth company with the best reputation in Colombia.
In addition, the companies of our financial group maintained significant leadership positions in their respective sectors. Bancolombia ranked first in overall ranking and in its sector. Protección is positioned as number one among pension and severance funds, and Seguros SURA as a leader in the insurance industry. In financial services, trust is a fundamental asset that is built with results, but above all with consistency, responsible decisions, and long-term relationships. This recognition motivates us to keep doing business responsibly and to continue contributing to the well-being and development of people, organizations, and communities where we operate.
I will now give the floor to Juana and Ignacio, who will go deeper into the strategic priorities of each company, and then to Juan Esteban, who will conclude with the financial performance of the quarter.
Thank you very much, Ricardo, and good morning, everyone. It is a pleasure to be with you in this call and to share directly with you the evolution of Suramericana, our main priorities, and how we are advancing our strategy. 2026 has been an important year for Suramericana, not only because of the performance of our businesses, but also because of the progress we have made in transforming the company. We start from a solid position. We have regional presence, recognized brands, deep knowledge of risks and our customers, and capabilities that we have built over the years. On that strength, we are advancing an agenda with two horizons.
The first is to strengthen our current businesses, increasing their capacity to grow profitably, improving their productivity, and consolidate their competitiveness. The second is to transform Suramericana to capture new opportunities for growth and value creation. This means evolving our portfolio, strengthening discipline in capital allocation, and very importantly, connecting and scaling capabilities that we have developed over the years in our different markets. Our opportunity, therefore, is no longer only about making each operation better individually. It is also about leveraging our scale and making Suramericana as a regional platform even more competitive.
In 2026, we have made tangible progress in that direction. I would like to highlight three initiatives that show how we are turning capabilities we already have into new sources of growth, efficiency, and profitability: SURA Re, Conexxión, and SURA Tech. With SURA Re, we are evolving our reinsurance capability into a regional platform that allows us to manage risk in a more integrated way, and at the same time, improve the company's capital efficiency. In 2026, SURA Re ranks fourth among Suramericana's reinsurers, with 11% share of ceded premiums under automatic treaties. In addition, the centralization of catastrophe coverage is generating efficiencies of approximately COP 28 billion per year.
This progress allows us to make better use of our regional scale and move toward increasingly more efficient management of the company's capital. Conexxión, in turn, responds to another opportunity, turning our regional scale into operational efficiency and competitive capacity. Today, this center shares technology, financial, and procurement capability across different companies in the system and reaches COP 36 billion in efficiencies from negotiation and COP 18 billion in concrete operational efficiencies. With SURA Tech, we are bringing the same logic to growth. We are scaling the digital direct channel and developing partnerships that allows us to reach new customers and take part in new forms of distribution across the region. We currently have six products in Colombia, 10 in Chile, reaching COP 93 billion in written premiums, which represents 37% growth compared to the previous year.
Our aspiration is to keep scaling these capabilities into other markets and strengthen our position in digital mass market and embedded insurance. Taken together, SURA Re, Conexxión, and SURA Tech are more than three initiatives. They represent a way of evolving Suramericana, identifying capabilities we already have, connecting them regionally, scaling them, and turning them into new sources of growth, efficiency, and profitability. Going forward, our value creation agenda is built around four complementary levels. The first is to strengthen our current portfolio and improve its profitability. We have businesses with significant room for improvement, and we are working to capture it with a disciplined view of growth, profitability, and capital, including the transformation we are carrying out in Brazil and Panama.
The second is to optimize capital allocation. We want to direct capital increasingly more toward the geographies, businesses, and capabilities where we find the best opportunities to generate value sustainably. The third is to develop new growth engines. SURA Re and SURA Tech are two concrete expressions of that objective. Added to them are other businesses and capabilities that we are developing, such as Bivett, our animal health centers run together with the CES Universidad . We also have Subocol, which is a company that is transforming mobility claims handling through artificial intelligence. All of these add to the opportunities that arise from belonging to SURA as a financial group. The fourth is to advance toward increasingly structural efficiency.
Here, Conexxión plays an important role by allowing us to share capabilities and simplifying processes to leverage our scale. To this, we add the efficiencies we are developing locally and the opportunities to work in an increasingly integrated way within the SURA system. These four levels have one purpose: to make capital, capabilities, and knowledge that Suramericana already has to produce more and more value. That transformation will allow us to move forward to our 2028 aspiration to grow profitably and sustainably, with premiums growing close to 10%, an ROE close to 15%, and our ROTE of 17%.
To sum up, for Suramericana, 2026 has been a year in which we have progressed in the transition from an organization built mainly around companies and geographies to a system that increasingly operates more as a regional platform, a platform that shares capabilities, scales in knowledge, develops new businesses, and uses its capital more efficiently. We have a solid base, and at the same time, we see significant value creation opportunities ahead.
With that perspective on Suramericana strategy and priorities, I would like to give the floor to Ignacio.
Thank you very much, Juana. It is a pleasure to be with you and to share how we see SURA Asset Management, the priorities we are driving, and the opportunities we see for the business. A year ago, at the Investors Day, we presented the SURA Asset Management strategy and went deeper into its organic growth levels. Today, before presenting the third quarter of 2026 results, I would like to tell you how that strategy has advanced, what we expect relative to the guidance we provided at the beginning of 2026, and how we see the company going forward.
We continue to build a story of sustained growth, and proof of that is the expansion of the AUM, which exceeds $240 billion, with notable growth in both the savings and retirement business and SURA Investments. Regional diversification continues to be our competitive advantage. We continue to expand our profitability margins with a double-digit ROE that we have maintained this year. We highlight the evolution of SURA Investments, whose contribution to profitability in recent years has been significant. We reached an operating margin of 22%, and we expect this margin to keep expanding in the following years, driven by AUM growth. Likewise, we highlight the resilience of the savings and retirements margins, which remain at attractive levels of 43% despite extraordinary expenses in Colombia. We have an experienced team committed to adopting new artificial intelligence capabilities.
Let's revisit the organic growth levels we presented a year ago at the Investors Day. Customers and channels. We continue to bring the optimal channel to each customer segment, sales advisors, the direct channel, the services platform, and wealth partners. In addition, we have strengthened our acquisition and retention strategies with generative AI, analytics, and behavioral science. The results are deeper engagement and loyalty among our 24 million customers. Investments. Investment management is the engine of the business and the main lever for the AUM growth. We maintain the discipline of our teams with a focus on generating alpha, and that discipline underpins the double-digit growth of our assets under management, which are growing 10.5% through the third quarter. Technology. We continue to invest in digitalization and strategic partnerships to capture regional economies of scale, and this year, we took an important step in AI.
We have created more than 2,000 agents into 2026, and we have democratized access to AI across the organization, and we are moving from experimenting with AI to generating functional productivity. This is the lever that allows us to grow with efficient spending and expand margins, especially now that we are in a demanding regulatory environment. Talent. We have extraordinary talent across all our companies under robust, ethical, and transparent corporate governance. To support the adoption of AI, we are bringing in new profiles and developing critical capabilities in the organization. This is a team that executes the strategy and is prepared for the new capabilities that future growth brings us. Based on our revised projection, we expect to close 2026 above the ranges we communicated to the market. We project AUM growth of 11%-12% versus the guidance of 9%-10%.
Fee income will grow between 7.5%-8% versus a range of 5.5%-6.5%. In terms of profitability, ROE and ROTE also exceed our original estimate, even in the face of greater expense pressure this year, particularly in Colombia due to the decrease and the wealth tax. Disciplined expense management has allowed us to consolidate higher profitability. In addition, we continue to bet on regional diversification, our competitive advantage, which gives us different sources of income stability in a year with regulatory challenges, particularly the implementation of pension reforms in Chile, Colombia, and Peru. This performance has translated into solid cash generation. Year to date, we have paid COP 1.4 trillion in dividends, COP 0.5 trillion in ordinary dividends, and COP 0.9 trillion in extraordinary dividends. The latter as part of the dividend recap we carried out in August.
We also maintain a low level of leverage, with a gross debt plus swaps to EBITDA ratio of 1.7x , which allows us to execute our organic strategy while keeping room for inorganic opportunities in the future. With these results, we expect to close the year exceeding the guidance we gave to the market. Going forward, we will keep our focus on the levers we have been executing. Investment in technology will remain decisive in advancing expense efficiency and driving profitability that grows over time. We see room to keep expanding our margins and to keep ROE above the cost of capital, and we will do so with discipline, low leverage, solid cash generation, and levels of investment that allow us to keep growing in the coming years.
With this context on our strategy and the priorities of the business, I will now give the floor to Juan Esteban.
Thank you very much, Ignacio. In line with what Ricardo, Juana, and Ignacio presented, we want to begin by highlighting the operating performance our businesses have maintained so far this year. This performance, together with the lower expenses at Grupo SURA, allowed controlling net income to reach COP 2.3 trillion, a growth of 11.5% compared with the same period of the previous year. For comparability purposes, we exclude from 2025 the effects associated with the spin-off from Grupo Argos, which are captured in the others line presented here. In addition, as Ricardo noted, this result absorbed the impact of the wealth tax, which reduced controlling net income by COP 227 billion, reaffirming the strength of operating performance this year. Looking at the evolution of the businesses, in terms of their contribution to earnings, we see that the contribution from SURA Asset Management decreased by 4%.
This variation is mainly explained by a lower legal reserve result against a particularly high base in 2025, as well as by the effect of the appreciation of the Colombian peso on the translation of results from operations abroad. However, the company's operating metrics maintained a very positive trend, which we will now look at in more detail. The earnings contributed by Suramericana grew 7%. This result reflects the company's focus on strengthening the technical profitability of the business. In addition, investments performed better, supported by portfolio growth and higher yields. This was in a context of moderate premium growth, particularly in the property and casualty segment. For its part, Grupo Cibest increased its contribution by 12%, maintaining favorable performance in an environment of better margins, contained credit risk, and moderate loan portfolio growth.
Later on, we will go deeper into each company and the specific factors that explain the results. This aggregate contribution from the companies show a diversified mix, and it also shows that results have been consistent even in a somewhat more demanding environment. Added to the company's contribution is the positive evolution of Grupo SURA's net financial result. This is explained by a favorable valuation of the derivatives we use to hedge our foreign exchange exposure, and also by continued management and reduction of debt, which has allowed us to mitigate the rise in interest rates in Colombia. Going forward, we expect this positive trend in financial expenses to continue, given the lower volume of debt and also a lower weighted average cost of debt.
On the other hand, Grupo SURA's expenses have normalized, decreasing 27% compared to 2025, when we incurred expenses associated with the executing of the spin-off from Grupo Argos. As a result, the controlling net income decreased 5%, reflecting extraordinary income from the spin-off during 2025. Comparable earnings, which we call pro forma, increased 12% and reflect a positive evolution of operating and financial results this year. As Ricardo indicated, the results through September and the operating trends we are currently seeing position us to have a good year-end result and to exceed the guidance we had for 2026. For the analysis of results and variations of each company, it is important to keep in mind that the appreciation of the Colombian peso against the regional currencies is reducing the conversion of results into Colombian pesos for these operations.
Given this, I will focus the analysis of variations on performance at constant exchange rates. This way, we will have a comparable reading of the operating evolution of the businesses. Let us begin with the financial results of Suramericana. Premiums written reached COP 14.7 trillion, a growth of 5.4% compared with the same period of the previous year, mainly driven by the life segment. On the technical side, the consolidated loss ratio stood at 53.5%, an improvement of 30 basis points compared with the same period in the previous year, which shows control of the average claim cost and the lower severity in the life segment. On this basis, the technical result reached nearly COP 2 trillion, growth close to 7%. This result incorporated the effects of the earthquake that occurred in August in Colombia.
At the end of October, Suramericana had recognized gross claims of COP 330 billion related with this event, accounting for about 45% of the payments of the entire insurance industry in the country. In total, the company has recognized obligations of COP 1.2 trillion in claims associated with the earthquake. However, and this is important, after considering reinsurance coverage, which is what we cede to the reinsurers, the net financial impact is of COP 16 trillion. This shows the company's prudent management of catastrophe risks. Turning to investment income, it reached COP 1.7 trillion through September, a growth of 13%. This reflects a higher volume of invested assets in the portfolio and also better returns, mainly on the portion indexed to inflation in Colombia. In addition, higher interest rates in the region are allowing us to reinvest under better conditions, which favors the portfolio's future profitability.
The portfolio return or yield came close to 10.6%, slightly higher than in 2025. In this context, at the end of September, the company reached a net income of COP 702 billion, growth of 7% compared to 2025. This was mainly driven by the life segment, with a lower contribution of the property and casualty segment. Controlling net income translated into return on equity of 12.8% and return on tangible equity of 15.3% of the last 12 months. Going forward, and as Juana has said, we see opportunities to keep expanding profitability through the ability to connect and scale initiatives regionally, such as SURA Re, Conexxión, and SURA Tech. For the close of 2026, we anticipate that premium growth will come in below our initial expectation, mainly because of the performance of the property and casualty segment, which continues in a softer market.
However, we maintain our earnings and profitability expectations for Suramericana for a full year 2026. Now, we will have a brief summary of each segment. The property and casualty segment maintain its recent dynamics. The market continues in a more competitive environment that has put pressure on volumes and rates in the region. This explains the current growth dynamics and also the technical results, which were additionally affected by weather events in Chile and the earthquake in Colombia. Investment income decreased by close to 9%, reflecting the effects of the appreciation of the regional currencies. With these elements, the segment's net income came in at COP 62 billion, a decrease of 58% compared with the previous year.
Going forward, as Juana shared, the focus remains on structurally recovering the segment's profitability, and for this, it is important to advance the commercial, operational, and technology initiatives she mentioned at the start of the presentation. Let us now look at the life segment, which maintains its momentum and is growing 11% in premiums. This growth responds mainly to the dynamics of voluntary health policies, where we continue to expand the insured base, and also the good performance of the group life policies, where there was new business in the bancassurance channel, as well as the workers' compensation business, where the contribution base and the insured population are growing. Technical results grew 35% compared with the previous year. This improvement is the result of a 50 basis point reduction in the segment's loss ratio and reflects lower frequency and severity in voluntary health in Colombia.
For its part, investment income grew 19%, combining portfolio growth with higher returns on the inflation index portfolios. The segment's net income reached COP 922 billion, a growth of 27% compared with the same period in the previous year. Let's move on to SURA Asset Management, which reached a controlling net income of COP 1.046 trillion . This is growth of around 5% at constant exchange rates compared with the same period in the previous year. This result translated into return on equity of 11% and a return on tangible equity of 27% for the last 12 months. This performance was supported by revenues totaling COP 3.2 trillion for the first nine months, growing 8.5%. For its part, the legal reserve return has normalized during 2026, and specifically in the third quarter, it subtracted from results.
Despite these losses, the year-end result remains positive and consistent with the long-term returns expected for these portfolios, which are quite diversified. With all these, results remained solid and reaffirm the benefits of diversification in this company's performance. That allowed us to preserve good levels of results, even in the face of the normalization of the legal reserve portfolio return, revenue and pension-related expense pressures in Colombia, and the expense associated with paying the wealth tax. This is evident in operating income, excluding the legal reserve return, a metric that isolates market volatility and lets us see the business's own performance. This income grew 10% at constant exchange rates compared with the same period of the previous year, showing the strength of the underlying operating result.
Now, let's walk quickly through the evolution of the pension management segment, that is, the savings and retirement segment. In this segment, fee and commission income grew close to 8%, driven by balance-based fees, in line with the growth in fee-earning AUM, especially in Mexico and the voluntary pensions and severance funds in Colombia. Operating income, excluding the legal reserve return, decreased mainly because of translation effects into Colombian pesos. It also reflects higher expenses absorbed in connection with the wealth tax and the pension-related expenses in Colombia, as well as the various investments in technology development that the company has been making. Now let us move to the SURA Investment segment, where we consolidate the results of the corporate solutions, investment management, and wealth management operations in the region.
AUM reached COP 91 trillion, a growth close to 10%. On this larger asset base, fee and commission income totaled COP 358 billion and grew 13%. The most relevant continued to be the evolution of the segment's profitability. Operating income reached COP 105 billion, doubling at constant exchange rates, while the operating margin stood at 22.4%. This evolution reflects greater scale in the business and a substantial improvement in its operating efficiency. The trajectory of recent years lets us size this progress. Net income reached COP 100 billion, almost 4x the results in 2023, and growth of 56% compared with the previous year.
Overall, we see a segment that continues to grow in assets and, of course, in revenues, and that at the same time has been translating this greater scale into a relevant improvement of its profitability. Let us now move to Grupo Cibest, which maintained good performance and an improvement in its return on equity through September. Controlling net income reached COP 6.3 trillion, growing 10.5% compared with the previous year. This evolution is reflected in higher profitability.
The annualized return on equity reached 21.7%, up 18% compared with the same period in the previous year, maintaining a positive trend in line with the expectation this company has presented to the market. Behind these results, what stands out mainly is the behavior of the net interest margin and cost of credit within expectations and reactivation of the loan growth, especially in the commercial portfolio.
With all these elements, we conclude our presentation. Thank you for your attention, and open the floor to questions.
Good morning. Thank you very much for being with us in this earnings call. We are going to start with our Q&A session. We start with several questions we have received about the environment and the context of the country and the region for the next year. I give the floor to Ricardo for this question.
Thank you, Carlos, and good morning, everyone. Thank you to those who have joined this call, and especially this Q&A session. That is a very important question. We see that, with optimism and realism, we see that 2027 is going to be a transition year in terms of some of the accounts that need to be readjusted in the country and amended. We are supporting the government in all the different measures they are taking in terms of taxes and costs. There is something related to the macroeconomic aspects, which we know, as a country, we have a clear task of sending out a sign of trust to international investors and adjusting the fiscal deficit that we know is around 9.4%, which will be a pain for many sectors, surely.
We believe firmly that this has to be done, and we trust that the government will be able to go through that financial plan they have. That is also connected to the El Niño phenomenon, of course, which will bring or put some inflation pressure to the interest rates that we expect that towards the mid of the year will be reduced, especially because of the appreciation of the dollar. As the fiscal accounts are revisited and adjusted, the panorama should be more positive with a mid and long-term objective. We need to see how we can increase investment. We see that investment in the country is around 16% of GDP, and the growth of the country has been supported by consumption.
Consumption will have to go down a little bit, but investment and everything that the government is doing to bring investment in key sectors, which will create dynamism in the following years, that is fundamental. And I think there has to be a common point here, there has to be an effort from public and private sectors to drive that. That is the macroeconomics. But there are some sectors, such as the energy and the health sector, that, of course, are connected to the macroeconomics, but that will have to provide the right signs or signals. We have to expand the energy capabilities. That is done with clear rules so that we can have projects that will allow us to have self-sufficiency in a country that is very rich in energy.
In health, we are working along the right lines. We are solving the most urgent matters, and we are now thinking long-term how we can have a health system. I am only explaining about these two sectors, but I think all sectors have to start looking at some improvements to have better investment projects. That is from the point of view of Colombia. But talking about other countries, we can see that there is a positive development. Peru, politically, we can see that the region is moving towards some more pro-market governments. We can see that in Chile, in Peru. Mexico has great dynamics as well.
I think, in general, 2027 is a year that will have important challenges, but I think we have to be positive and realistic on how we come up with solutions for those pending items, especially in terms of macroeconomics in Colombia, to have the right growth platform going forward.
Thank you, Ricardo. Along the same lines, but now going from macro to micro, Mauricio Meza asks about the perspectives we have or the outlook we have for the company in 2027.
Good morning, everyone. About Mauricio's question, it is very important to highlight that we end in this year with a very good position. Let us remember that at the beginning of the year, we saw that we had a year ahead with the variables we had, and our expectation was COP 2.3 trillion, and we expanded that guidance to COP 2.7 trillion. That is great because we have this long-term plan for 2028. In terms of the perspectives or the outlooks, we normally, at this time of the year, look in the budget for the following year. Even though this is a work in progress, the expectations we have are to consolidate this progress, this progress that we have made and that have been consistent in the last few years.
We will have the ability to give you more precision in the guidance, which we will provide in the following earnings call. But for now, we would like to tell you that our expectation is to consolidate the results and keep this good progress we have made in 2026.
Thank you, Juan. The next question is sent by Gabriel Pérez. "Have you analyzed more repurchase programs through book building type of repurchases?"
Gabriel, we have approved both mechanisms, and they are at our disposal. But what we feel is that we will be assessing those dynamically. We have started with the transactional mechanism or transaction mechanism that has allowed us to have a continuous presence in the market to favor the liquidity of both shares that we have listed. We believe that this continues being the right tool for the objectives we have in our program. We do not disregard that, given certain conditions, we consider the other option.
Of course, the repurchase program allows us to have an efficient allocation of capital to create value. We see opportunities in both types of shares. This is why we started with the program, and we have operated before the period we have to operate and before the results. We are very happy to have this possibility because this gives us a good opportunity for our shareholders.
The next question is sent by Fernando Lopez. "When you mention the benefits we have as shareholders associated to the share repurchase program, you do not mention how this impacts the dividends. What have you thought about the increased percentage for 2027 on this item?"
Hi, good morning, Fernando. Hope you are doing very well. At other points, we have told you about the different uses that Grupo SURA makes of its cash flow. We have some sources that are the dividends that come from our investments, and we use that for three things: investments, dividends for shareholders, and reduction of debt. The figures that we have been looking at in the last years look at the fact that in those three uses, we should allocate resources. When we allocate resources to one of those fronts, we do not deteriorate the other two. That means that the three have to be maintained at the same time.
How are we doing nowadays? As Juan Esteban mentioned, repurchase program, COP 500 billion in March for 2028. We have used COP 58 billion, and that will increase as with the opportunities. Dividends, if we go back to 2021, dividends per share were COP 600. We are at COP 2,000 at the moment, so that's almost 3x in the last five years. We have said that our aspiration is to reach COP 3,000 in 2028. What we are imagining is that in the following shareholders meeting, when the board of directors discusses that, we will propose a dividend that should be aligned with that trajectory we have proposed for 2028, which, given the fact that we have a repurchase program, that should not deteriorate that dividend growth.
The other pillar, which is the debt, we expect to go down COP 1.5 trillion-COP 1.3 trillion in debt, and we are forecasting a COP 5.8 trillion, which will have an additional source of debt with less interest, and we hope to reach those COP 5 trillion in 2028. Everything related to those three uses of resources or capital, anything that can be accelerated depending on the income of the companies, will be done, and that should be done step by step. It is worth mentioning also that each one of the companies also has its own capital allocation triangle, mentioning those three topics. Within the companies, we have to invest to guarantee the future growth of the businesses. It is that balance between investment, dividends, and debt that is something we do step by step.
Thank you, Ricardo. Next question is also from Gabriel Pérez. "With the excellent results of the last quarters, how does the guidance change both for dividends and ROE for 2026, and the one that we saw at the Investors Day, which had the 2028 outlook?" Juan Esteban.
Thank you, Gabriel. Clearly, the guidance for 2026 is being changed. We are, of course, expecting to have a share price between COP 8,300- COP 8,900. That is between COP 2.7 trillion , COP 2.9 trillion in net controlling, sorry, trillion in net controlling income. Looking at the changes, this performance is really a validation. A year ago, when we looked at the targets for 2028, we were looking at a target that increased the income in an important percentage. We were looking at dividends and the expectation of the dividends. We were declaring our desire to reduce debt leveraging. We received many questions then about whether those targets were very ambitious. What we replied at that point was that we had built those looking at the plans and capabilities of the companies.
This progress is really validating that we have those capabilities and that capacity, and that the plans were really supported by realistic conditions. We will continue on that journey, especially on the return on equity. We had had some return on equity between 10%-11%, which we were not happy with. The plans that each one of the companies has been executing very successfully are to reclaim the profitability that those competitive positions should have. That has really made us expect with a return on equity between 16% and 17%. If that is higher than, yeah, 15%, that validates that we do have that competitive position to be able to have those returns on equity that will exceed the cost of capital.
Our desire, as I said before, is to continue consolidating the performance and to continue moving forward. Again, this is a validation more than a change. We will continue monitoring this in the following course.
Thank you, Juan. Bernard Crisel is sending a question. He is asking about the execution and is supporting the execution of the strategy and the share repurchase program. The question is about the second point, taking into account the current discount of the preferred shares of 28%. At that level, could we do a repurchase only for the preferred shares? Juan Esteban .
Yeah, this, of course, has to do with all the other options we mentioned. The repurchase programs have the ability of having a dynamic valuation. I have started repurchasing both shares. We see an opportunity in both shares or types of shares. We wanted to start with a very balanced execution, but we are not, or we would have the margin for moving and continue assessing. In terms of the discount of the preferred share, that does not make a lot of economic sense, but of course, the market operates in that way.
Again, we see a lot of opportunity in both share types. We will be communicating what we observe. We have until March 2028 for that repurchase program. We have only executed what, 11%. This is something we continue evaluating. We continue seeing opportunities there. We see that this is a good capital allocation to repurchase our own shares.
Gabriel Pérez is sending another question. Could you please tell us what are the outcomes, outlooks for the legal reserve release in Chile, and when we would see the results, or that and the results, and the impact on SURA Asset Management and the Grupo SURA? Carlos Vallejo.
Thank you, Carlos, and thank you, Gabriel, for the question. Remember that the last pension reform in Chile changed the way we calculate the legal reserve, and we are going to go from 1% of the AUM to 30% of the income in the last 12 months. That, of course, will have an effect that we estimate in a release of the legal reserve of $ 250 million after taxes. These releases will be gradual, and they will happen from 2028 up to 2031 in a four-year period. This has given us the possibility of paying the extraordinary dividend to our shareholders this year, of course, thinking about those releases.
The implications that that will have on our financial results from 2028, when we start having those legal reserve releases, we will see less income on the legal reserve, but in terms of profitability on the ROE, that will be compensated, understanding that we will have less capital in the equity.
Thank you, Carlos. The next question is sent by Bernard again, and it has to do with the property and casualty segment in Suramericana. He is asking, this segment at the moment is showing results with a cost to income that is above 100%. The question is, what plans do you have and are executing to reduce that below 100%?
Hi, Bernard. Thank you very much for your question. Yes, indeed, this has been affected by the wealth tax in Colombia and some market pressures that have put pressure on growth, and of course, on that expense indicator, and some specific deviations that are identified, and we have solutions underway at the moment. We want to be under 100% in 2028, especially with efficiencies that we will have, whose impacts will be seen in 2027 mainly, and in the efficiency in the reinsurance ceded treaties from SURA Re and other measures that are on the way.
Thank you very much, Manuel. The next question is from N. Manuel Perez. "What proportion of the fall in the profit in SURA Asset Management has to do with the legal reserve, and what corresponds to structural factors? What expectations do you have for 2027?"
Thank you very much for your question. The fall in the operating income that you see is explained by a lower result in the legal reserve. It is important to highlight that the operating performance of the company is very solid. Just so you have an idea, the operating income, excluding the legal reserve and in constant exchange rate, it is growing 1.7%. The fall in the operating income was because last year we had a legal reserve of $160 million, and now we are reporting $90 million. Last year, the yield was 16%, which was an extraordinary yield, and this year we have had a yield that is more aligned with what our investment teams estimate for the mid and long term. That is exclusively explained by the legal reserve result.
The operating part of the company is doing very well, and as Ignacio mentioned earlier, the fee income is growing at 8.5%, almost even increasing the guidance that we had for this year, which was 6.5%. Also important to mention that we managed to grow the operating income, excluding legal reserve, even when we had the extraordinary effects in Colombia in terms of expenses, the wealth tax, and the decree that were mentioned by Ignacio. So that you have an idea, that has created pressure on the expenses that are growing at 13%. But if we exclude those extraordinary effects, they are growing at 6%.
We see good income for the company going forward, and that operating level where we have been expanding operating margins and ROE, which is now a double-digit ROE, together with the double-digit growth of the AUMs, we see that we are going to maintain this trend for the following year and in the mid and long term.
Thank you very much, Carlos. The next question is sent by Juan David Sánchez , related to the situation at the EPS. How has this evolved in the company?
At EPS SURA, the HMO SURA, we have been working on the sustainability of the company, and of course, taking care of the lives and well-being of our members. We continue having an open position, willing to be part of discussions to provide structural solutions that will allow us to improve our health system in Colombia. In September, we have COP 9 trillion in income and a positive equity of COP 251 billion that allow us to, of course, comply with all our obligations.
Next question is by [Jorge Bacapio]. "What are the forecasts for SURA Asset Management in terms of the pension reform that we have in the different countries where we operate?"
Jorge, thank you very much for your question. We have several pension reforms that are being implemented at the moment in Colombia, Peru, and Chile. We still have some parameters that have to be defined. Some of them have an important progress, but it is important to mention that the individual capitalization system is legitimized in the region, and that we have had important progress, such as the increase in the contribution that these reforms bring in Chile that will go from 10% to 17%.
Before, we had had an increase in the contribution in Mexico, which is underway. We expect these pension reforms to have an impact on the financial results in the following years, but they will not deviate us from the pathway of our growth in the AUM to double digits, expansion of the profitability margins, and we expect to maintain ROEs in current levels or at current levels and even higher. The reform in Chile has an important progress. The contributions have started increasing. They have already defined the target-based funds, and in Chile, the auction of the stock of affiliates and the release of the reserves will happen there too.
In Colombia, the pension reform has moved forward. The Constitutional Court has supported a great part of the reform. There is a request from Colpensiones to postpone this effect into 2028. This is still to be validated, but what is important here is that we at Protección are prepared to operate with that reform once it happens. In Peru, we are also with implementation of our reform. One of the main changes is that they are going to give the possibility to people if they want a charge for AUM or a charge given the salary base, and we will see the impact of that in 2027 in our numbers.
The next question is sent by Simón Londoño. "Thank you for the presentation. About the renovation or renewal of the premiums with reinsurers for the following year, will they have an increase taking into account the loss ratio given the earthquake?"
No, we are not anticipating an increase in the renewal of those reinsured treaties, and also because of the earthquake in Panama. One of the initiatives we have at SURA Re is the centralization of the catastrophe risks and coverage that will bring efficiency in the costs, but will also facilitate the signing of these contracts. We are not anticipating really any impact given those earthquakes.
Related to that, Manuel, we have a following question from Luis Miguel Cataño. "Given the increase of the earthquake risks, how well prepared is the company for further earthquake case?"
Yes, we are prepared for a new catastrophe, whether it is an earthquake or any other catastrophe in any part of Latin America. As we saw in this year's results, we have paid more than COP 0.330 trillion, and our retention is only COP 16 trillion. That, of course, is due to our good reinsurer structure, and that it also allows us to comply with our obligations to our customers who have felt supported, and we will continue supporting them from now onwards.
Okay, we have gone over the time we had for this call, and we have answered most of the questions that were asked. Ricardo.
Thank you, Carlos, and thank you for having joined, for your questions, for your interest. My final message is that we are seeing positive results, good dynamics in the business, and it has been reflected in the metrics and in the prices of the shares. This shows that the strategy is being executed appropriately, and we will continue on that path. Of course, our investor relations area is available for your questions in the future. Thank you very much.