Jaime Gilinski Bacal Net Worth

Jaime Gilinski Bacal has an estimated net worth of $17 billion, according to Forbes Real-Time Billionaires, Jaime Gilinski Bacal profile (figures as of October 20, 2026). That is up from $3.6 billion in 2019.

Jaime Gilinski Bacal is a Colombian banker, investor, and real estate developer. He studied industrial engineering at Georgia Tech and later earned an MBA at Harvard in 1980. After business school, he worked in Morgan Stanley's mergers and acquisitions division. He later built a major banking group in Latin America through deals, turnarounds, and bank mergers. His career also expanded into food, retail investing, and large property projects in Panama.

His rise came from buying and reshaping financial assets. In the 1990s, he bought the Colombian assets of BCCI after its collapse, renamed the bank Banco Andino, and later sold it. His family then bought Banco de Colombia in a record privatization deal for Colombia at the time, before later selling control in a larger transaction. He also built GNB Sudameris, invested in Banco Sabadell and Metro Bank, and bought large stakes in Grupo Nutresa and Grupo Sura.

How Jaime Gilinski Bacal built his fortune

Most of Gilinski's wealth comes from banking. He built one of the largest banking empires in Latin America through mergers and acquisitions. In the 1990s, he bought the Colombian assets of BCCI, turned them into Banco Andino, and later sold the rebuilt bank. His family then bought Banco de Colombia for $365 million, with backing that included George Soros, who agreed to invest $50 million in 1994. That deal became one of Colombia's biggest financial transactions.

He kept expanding through new purchases and partnerships. In 2003, he acquired Banco Sudameris and Banco Tequendama and combined them into GNB Sudameris. In 2012, HSBC sold its operations in Colombia, Peru, and Paraguay to Banco GNB Sudameris for $400 million in cash. Gilinski later became the largest shareholder of Metro Bank in 2019 and took control in 2023 with around a 53% stake. Outside banking, he owns businesses such as Yupi and Rimax Plastics and co-develops Panama Pacifico beside the Panama Canal.

Forbes net worth changes

Forbes put Gilinski's fortune at $3.6 billion in 2019. It later rose to $4.2 billion in 2022. That period matched his long record of bank buying and dealmaking, plus his 2022 purchases of large stakes in Grupo Nutresa and Grupo Sura. Forbes' estimate then jumped to $7.7 billion in 2024, after a stretch of public tender offers and a broader push into some of Colombia's biggest corporate groups.

The gains continued after that. Forbes estimated his wealth at $10.7 billion in 2025 and $14.7 billion in 2026. On Forbes' real-time billionaires tracker, he stood at $17 billion as of October 20, 2026. The main drivers named by Forbes remain banking and finance, while his portfolio also includes the Nutresa deal and the large Panama redevelopment project on the former Howard Air Force Base.