AVAL vs CIB: How Grupo Aval and Grupo Cibest Compare (2026)
Last updated August 2026
Short answer
CIB is the larger of the two ($21.39B market cap): the incumbent the market prices for continued execution (8.52x forward earnings, beta 0.44). AVAL is the smaller challenger ($6.01B), priced similarly on forward earnings (9.09x): more room to run, but more to prove. The real question is which set of drivers you believe, and whether owning one (or both) leaves you over-concentrated.
AVAL vs CIB: the tie-breaker metrics
Same yardstick, side by side (as of August 2026). Valuation lined up like this is most meaningful for two names in the same corner of the market, which these are. Figures are approximate; verify before investing.
| Metric | AVAL | CIB | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|---|
| Market cap | $6.01B | $21.39B | Size. The larger name is the incumbent; the smaller has more room to grow and more to prove. |
| Forward P/E | 9.09 | 8.52 | Valuation on next year's expected earnings, the same yardstick for both. Lower is cheaper for that growth; higher means the market is paying up. |
| Trailing P/E | 11.77 | 10.78 | Valuation on the last 12 months. A big drop from trailing to forward means the market expects earnings to jump, so more growth is already in the price. |
| Beta | 0.38 | 0.44 | Volatility vs the market. Above 1 swings harder than the index; below 1 is steadier. Higher beta means bigger drawdowns to hold through. |
| Price vs 52-week range | 66% of range | 92% of range | Where today's price sits between the 52-week low and high. Near the high is momentum with less margin of safety; near the low is out of favor or a discount, depending on why. |
| Price / book | 0.01 | 0.00 | How much you pay over book value. Very high can signal an asset-light, high-return business or a rich price. |
Before you buy: how AVAL and CIB affect your concentration
The metrics above tell you which is the marginally better business. The bigger risk for most people is not picking the slightly worse stock, it is over-concentrating. AVAL and CIB share themes, so owning both, or adding either to what you already hold, can quietly push a large share of your portfolio into one bet.
This is the part a generic comparison page cannot answer, because it depends on what you own. Connect your brokerage and Walnut shows your real, combined AVAL and CIB exposure, flags overlap with your existing positions, and tells you if adding one would tip you past a concentration you are comfortable with, read-only by default, with your login staying at your broker. Walnut is not an investment adviser.
What does Grupo Aval (AVAL) do?
Grupo Aval is a Colombian financial holding company that controls four commercial banks (Banco de Bogota, Banco de Occidente, Banco Popular and Banco AV Villas) alongside the pension manager Porvenir, the merchant bank Corficolombiana and a set of trust, brokerage and investment banking units. Together those subsidiaries make it the largest banking group in Colombia by loans and deposits, with a gross loan book of roughly COP 193.6 trillion and deposits of roughly COP 216.8 trillion as of the first quarter of 2026. The reporting currency is the Colombian peso, so every operating number is a peso number, while the ADR itself is quoted in US dollars on the NYSE. That gap matters more than it sounds: a good peso year can still be a flat dollar year for the ADR if the currency moves against holders.
What does Grupo Cibest (CIB) do?
Grupo Cibest is the holding company created in May 2025 to sit above Bancolombia, and the NYSE ticker CIB still trades under the old name in a lot of data feeds. Bancolombia itself is the largest bank in Colombia by assets, with roughly COP 262 trillion (about $82 billion) of gross loans and COP 272 trillion of customer deposits as of the first quarter of 2026. Around it sits a group that is broader than one bank: Nequi, the mobile wallet that has passed 27 million users and is working toward its own separate license, the Wompi payments business, Renting Colombia, Banco Agricola in El Salvador and BAM in Guatemala. The Panamanian subsidiary Banistmo was agreed for sale at about $1.4 billion and the deal was set to close in the second quarter of 2026, which simplifies the group and frees capital for the digital businesses.
AVAL vs CIB: how do they differ?
Both fit overlapping themes, but they are not interchangeable. The useful comparison is which set of drivers and risks you want exposure to.
- AVAL drivers: Deposit gathering is outpacing lending; The equity tax is a one-time distortion, not a run rate.
- CIB drivers: A rate cycle running in the bank's favor; Nequi and the shift toward fee income.
Which fits which kind of investor
A faster-growing, richer-valued name usually swings harder, so it suits a longer horizon and a higher tolerance for volatility; a steadier, more cash-generative business suits a more conservative or income-minded investor. The honest test is which set of risks you could hold through a drawdown: Country risk dominates: Colombian fiscal deterioration, sovereign rating actions, tax changes like the 2026 equity levy, and the political cycle all land directly on this stock, often faster than any operating result. For CIB, the single largest risk is that everything here is priced in a currency the ADR holder does not control: a peso that weakens back toward the 4,000 per dollar levels of 2024 would cut reported dividends and share price in dollars even if the bank performs exactly as guided.
AVAL or CIB: which should you pick?
Growth-minded investors who believe the theme has years to run tend to accept the richer multiple for more upside; value-minded investors lean toward the cheaper forward earnings and steadier profile. Pick AVAL if you believe its drivers more; CIB if you believe its. Many investors hold both, but since they share themes, that is a concentrated bet, not diversification. Decide deliberately and check overlap. For the full detail, see the AVAL and CIB guides.
AVAL vs CIB: the full fundamentals
AVAL. All operating figures are reported in Colombian pesos (shown in filings as Ps), while the ADR trades in US dollars near $4.80 for a market capitalization around $5.8 billion. The sub-book valuation is the whole argument in one number: the market is applying a Colombia discount rather than pricing a broken bank, since the ex-tax return on equity near 12% is respectable for an emerging-market lender. Dividends are declared in pesos and paid monthly in Colombia, so the dollar amount a US holder receives moves with the exchange rate.
CIB. The trailing numbers are misleading and it is worth separating them from the run rate. Fourth-quarter 2025 carried a non-cash goodwill impairment on the Banistmo sale that dragged trailing twelve-month return on equity down to about 7.65%, while the first quarter of 2026 annualized to roughly 14.9% at the group and about 19% at Bancolombia standalone. Full-year 2026 guidance of 19.5% to 20% return on equity is what the forward multiple near 8.5 times is discounting, and second-quarter results were due around August 10, 2026.
Headline figures (approximate, August 2026): AVAL shows gross loans ~COP 193.6 trillion, up ~6% year over year (1Q 2026), total deposits ~COP 216.8 trillion, up ~11.7% year over year (1Q 2026), attributable net income ~COP 336.6 billion in 1Q 2026, down ~6.9% year over year, return on average equity ~7.4% reported in 1Q 2026, ~12.0% excluding the one-time equity tax; CIB shows revenue (ttm) ~$6.6 billion, net income (q1 2026) ~COP 1.46 trillion (~$455 million), ~COP 1.8 trillion excluding the wealth tax, market cap ~$23.6 billion, forward p/e ~8.5x (trailing ~24x on impairment-distorted earnings).
The bottom line: AVAL vs CIB
AVAL and CIB are related but distinct: same themes, different businesses and risks. Neither wins in the abstract; the right pick is whichever thesis you actually believe, sized so you are not over-concentrated in one theme. Walnut can show your combined AVAL and CIB exposure against your real portfolio. It is not an investment adviser.
Wondering how AVAL or CIB fits the portfolio you already own? Walnut is an AI investing app that connects your brokerage read-only and answers questions like that about your actual holdings: overlap, concentration, and how each position tracks the S&P 500. Compare the best AI portfolio analyzers or see the best AI investing apps in 2026.
Investing in Grupo Aval with AI
Connect the broker you already use and ask Walnut's AI how AVAL fits what you actually hold: whether you own it already through a fund, what it would do to your concentration, and how it has tracked the S&P 500. Read-only by default, and you approve anything before it reaches your broker.
FAQ
What is the difference between AVAL and CIB?
+
Grupo Aval is a Colombian financial holding company that controls four commercial banks (Banco de Bogota, Banco de Occidente, Banco Popular and Banco AV Villas) alongside the pension manager Porvenir, the merchant bank Corficolombiana and a set of trust, brokerage and investment banking units. Grupo Cibest is the holding company created in May 2025 to sit above Bancolombia, and the NYSE ticker CIB still trades under the old name in a lot of data feeds. They show up together because they share investment themes, but they are different businesses, so the better fit depends on which thesis you are expressing.
Is AVAL or CIB the better stock?
+
Neither is universally better. CIB is the larger incumbent; AVAL is the smaller challenger and looks pricier on forward earnings. Walnut is informational, not investment advice. Compare what each does, the tie-breaker metrics above, and the risks, then decide which fits your thesis and what you already own.
Which is cheaper, AVAL or CIB?
+
On forward P/E (as of August 2026), AVAL trades at 9.09x and CIB at 8.52x, so CIB is the cheaper of the two on next year's expected earnings. A lower multiple is not automatically the better buy: a richer valuation can be justified by faster growth, and a lower one can reflect real risk. Weigh the multiple against how fast each business is compounding.
Should you own both AVAL and CIB?
+
Because they share themes, owning both concentrates you in that theme. That can be intentional (a focused bet) or accidental (less diversification than it looks). Walnut can show your combined exposure across both, and whether adding either over-concentrates you, before you buy.
What are the risks of AVAL vs CIB?
+
AVAL: Country risk dominates: Colombian fiscal deterioration, sovereign rating actions, tax changes like the 2026 equity levy, and the political cycle all land directly on this stock, often faster than any operating result. Currency is the second layer, because results are earned in pesos and the ADR is priced in dollars, so peso weakness can erase a solid operating year for US holders. Credit quality is the third: a policy rate near 12% alongside roughly 6% inflation strains consumer and small business borrowers, and provisioning can rise quickly if unemployment worsens. Corficolombiana carries legacy infrastructure exposure and a history of legal and compliance matters tied to Colombian road concessions, which has produced headline risk in the past. Finally, the ADR is thinly traded relative to US bank stocks, the underlying is a preferred share class with limited voting rights, and the group is majority-controlled by the Sarmiento family, so minority holders have little say in capital allocation. CIB: The single largest risk is that everything here is priced in a currency the ADR holder does not control: a peso that weakens back toward the 4,000 per dollar levels of 2024 would cut reported dividends and share price in dollars even if the bank performs exactly as guided. Colombia's fiscal position is strained enough that the government imposed a temporary wealth tax which cost the group about COP 374 billion in a single quarter and pushed the effective tax rate near 33%, and there is nothing stopping a repeat. Asset quality is contained rather than improving, with 30-day and 90-day past-due ratios around 3.63% and 2.51% and a cost of credit near 1.90%. Politics is a live variable: Abelardo de la Espriella won the June 2026 runoff by roughly one percentage point and took office on August 7, and a governing majority that thin makes policy direction hard to underwrite. Finally, the valuation itself is the risk that gets underrated, since roughly 2.2 times book leaves little room if the rate cycle turns or the peso gives back its gains.
Walnut is informational, not investment advice. This page is descriptive and not a recommendation to buy or sell AVAL or CIB; figures are approximate and dated (as of August 2026). Verify current data before investing.