Using the case study methodology, an analysis of three cases on banking acquisitions in Colombia is performed. The deals are classified as successful or unsuccessful according to some financial ratios that measure profitability and efficiency. Then, the characteristics of these transactions are studied thoroughly to determine the attributes that lead to different outcomes. The research finds support for several attributes regarded as influential in the outcome of acquisitions. In particular, experience in previous acquisitions or organizational change, and focus on core business, are found to be the most relevant. Furthermore, the relative profitability between bidder and target is proposed as a factor that could influence the outcome of an acquisition.

Después de más de 20 años de éxito del sistema indexado de financiamiento de vivienda (UPAC) a través del cual la vivienda se convirtió en un sector líder como parte de una amplia estrategia de desarrollo diseñada para acelerar la urbanización e industrialización colombiana, el sistema sufrió modificaciones estructurales en donde pasó de estar únicamente atado a la inflación para pasar a indexarse a la tasa de interés también. Esto generó una fuerte alza en el costo real del financiamiento, desencadenando una crisis de pagos por parte de una alta proporción de usuarios que terminaron perdiendo su vivienda y desatando una crisis social. Esta situación paralizó el sector de la construcción, retrocediendo fuertemente en el proceso de crecimiento a través de este modelo. El gobierno intentó reparar el modelo volviendo al esquema original (atado únicamente a la inflación) y renovando el nombre del sistema con la iniciativa UVR. No obstante, este sistema no ha podido recuperar la capacidad motora que tuvo en sus comienzos.

Recently, Latin American countries have experienced a series of upgrades in their sovereign credit ratings that are reflecting the region’s appeal for sovereign portfolio managers around the globe. Paradoxically, Latin American economies have shown strong economic fundamentals during the whole last decade and did not experienced any significant local common shock during 2009 - 2012, years in which credit agencies started upgrading the ratings of the region. Given these facts a valid question that springs up is which circumstances triggered the change in perception over the region’s creditworthiness during the last years. In this document I intend to explore a possible explanation to this change in risk perception, which consists in a positive wake–up-call contagion generated after the 2009 Greek debt crisis. The thesis will follow the methodology proposed in Giordano, Pericolli and Tomassino (2012), in which an analysis of contagion was conducted exclusively over developed European countries. Estimations show robust evidence of positive wake – up – call contagion towards the Latin American region. This outcome confirms that pricing of Latin American sovereign bonds in international financial markets is finally acknowledging the efforts of Latin American economies in correcting fiscal imbalances, implementing inflation targeting regimes and creating capital buffers to counter the effects of new coming local and international crises.

por el cual se traslada la administracion integral del Fondo Nacional para la Atencion a la Poblacion Desplazada por la Violencia