BOGOTA (Reuters) – Carlos Ardila Lulle, one of Colombia’s richest businessmen and owner of a conglomerate including sugar mills, broadcasters and a soccer team, died on Friday of natural causes aged 91 years old, the company said.
Ardila Lulle, who was born in 1930 in the city of Bucaramanga, died in a hospital in Cali, Colombia’s third-largest city, located in the southeast of the country.
Ardila Lulle was one of the richest men in Colombia ranked 1,362 on the 2021 Forbes Rich List with an estimated fortune of $2.3 billion.
Among the companies in Organization Ardila Lulle are drinks producer Postobon, sugar mills Incauca and Providencia, radio and television broadcaster RCN and football club Atletico Nacional.
Colombia’s President Ivan Duque mourned Ardila Lulle’s passing and highlighted his leadership.
“His life was a great example of tenacity, love for Colombia, fraternity with workers and patriotism. Colombia has lost one of its great transformers,” Duque said in a message on Twitter.
(Reporting by Luis Jaime Acosta; Writing by Oliver Griffin; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
