(Adds context for profit drop throughout, adds operating expenses rise in paragraph 3)
Nov 14 (Reuters) - Grupo SURA, Colombia's largest investment company, posted on Tuesday a year-on-year 22% dip in third-quarter net profit, following a series of divestments earlier this year which hit the company's bottom line in the short-term.
Net profit for the company, which operates in more than 10 countries via holdings in financial services, foodstuffs, cement, energy and infrastructure, as well as investment firms, totaled 310.5 billion pesos ($78.42 million) in the quarter.
Quarterly revenue rose 17.2% to reach 8.43 trillion pesos, according to the company's earnings report, but this was offset by a 15% rise in operating expenses.
In August, Grupo SURA, cut its 2023 net profit forecast to between 2,400 and 2,700 pesos per share, following an agreement earlier this year to divest its stake in food processing firm Nutresa.
SURA also earlier this year sold off its Argentine insurance arm.
The company noted in a statement on Tuesday the impacts "associated with the deferred tax" from the transaction with Nutresa and the "impacts generated by the operations of Suramericana in Argentina and El Salvador."
($1 = 3,959.2100 Colombian pesos) (Reporting by Isabel Woodford; Editing by Brendan O'Boyle)