Grupo de Inversiones Suramericana S.A. (GRUPO SURA) hereby informs to the public market the main aspects of its business continuity and impact plan identified to date, as a result of the economic, social, and environmental emergency decreed in Colombia to respond to the pandemic associated with COVID-19.

Business continuity

As part of its risk management system, Grupo SURA has a business continuity plan designed to maintain the operations of its critical activities in the event of interruption scenarios. This plan defines the measures to be implemented to maintain an adequate level of operations during these events, including investor relations, accounting closings, consolidation and transmission of financial information, disclosure of relevant information, and regulatory compliance.

This plan has been created on the basis of an analysis of the risks that arise from the operating model, Grupo SURA’s obligations and services, and also considering the impacts of contingencies that might affect the availability of enabling resources, such as technology, physical infrastructure, key personnel, and financial liquidity.

To preserve the operation of business-critical activities and, at the same time, protect its employees’ health, Grupo SURA established, as a general business continuity plan, the activation of the telecommuting system for 100% of the individuals that make up the company’s work team.

The system began operating on March 16, and access to technological systems and resources needed to achieve this objective were also activated. Psychological and methodological assistance measures were implemented to properly deal with the challenges involved in working within this new context. In addition, all the activities needed to ensure data protection have been implemented, maintaining the controls and security systems that have been defined to mitigate the cybersecurity risk to which the company might be exposed.

The Company’s liquidity position was also analyzed to review its financial capacity in the scenario posed by the current situation and ensure that its obligations are met, and its operations are maintained. This analysis showed that Grupo SURA has a liquidity and solvency position that enable it to deal appropriately with the current situation.

Thus, Grupo SURA’s continuity model, tested over the past several weeks, has enabled the company to appropriately deal with the impacts derived from different types of events that could endanger the continuity of its operations and fulfillment of its obligations. The companies in Grupo SURA’s portfolio have implemented similar plans adapted to the reality of their businesses to deal with the contingency, activating their continuity plan and following a clear strategy.

Financial risk

To evaluate the liquidity risk for Grupo Empresarial SURA, we have done a very detailed review of the liquidity and solvency levels of the different operations, as well as additional factors that might affect them. Thus, it was determined that the levels of liquidity and solvency at the different operations of the group, and also the additional factors that might impact it, are sufficient to deal with the foreseeable effects of the current situation.

The market risk associated with changes in price and yields of the instruments that make up the Group’s investment portfolio, risk that has increased recently due to the volatility of the financial markets, has had impacts on Grupo SURA and its affiliates’ operations and results due to the natural exposure of their businesses to this type of instrument.

Nevertheless, the mitigation mechanisms and the policies implemented by each company as part of their management systems have enabled the Group to deal with the effects thathave taken place, without showing any significant impact that could represent a direct threat to its sustainability.

Strategic risks

The regulatory dynamics implemented by the region’s governments to deal with the challenges posed by this situation have increased Grupo Empresarial SURA’s Strategic Regulatory Environment risk. This is why the company has taken timely measures to monitor and anticipate any possible impact derived from the situation, whose evaluation is in a state of constant development.

With respect to the consequences of this situation on the major macroeconomic indicators for the region, Grupo SURA is performing a detailed evaluation of the possible effects of some strategic risks that are more highly exposed, including exposure to economic environment risk, and consolidation and sustainable growth risk, both directly related to the results of the economies where we do business.

In the current situation, it is equally clear that society is being subjected to extraordinary pressures that could lead to extremely relevant events for the Group. This has led to the activation of mechanisms for evaluating and dealing with the social environment strategic risk, such as those implemented through Fundación SURA and the Companies’ Sustainability teams to determine the potential impact around the region and to define appropriate actions. To date, SURA has donated extraordinary resources for close to COP 14,000 million (close to USD 3.5 million), which are also a contribution to our over 11 thousand shareholders, as a company listed in Bolsa de Valores de Colombia (Colombian Stock Exchange). In addition, SURA employees have donated COP 350 million.

Financial impact

Within the next few days, Grupo SURA will disclose to the market the financial results for the first quarter of this year, which will report on how the businesses are performing, and the most significant events during the reporting period.

Publication of information

Finally, Grupo SURA will continue to employ its usual channels to keep its shareholders, investors, and the market informed, including the following channels:

• Relevant information reports published through the system provided by the Financial Superintendence (Superintendencia Financiera) for that purpose.
• Updates of the Investor Relations section in Grupo SURA’s web page, replicating the Relevant information disclosed to the market.
• Use of banners and publications in the Company’s web site, containing information about the implementation of contingency measures to ensure the continuity of its operations.
• Use of the Company’s social networks to replicate the information produced.