Álvaro Castellanos

Practice Areas

Banking & Finance

Dispute Resolution

Career

Alvaro is president of the regional firm and partner in Consortium Legal - Guatemala. With 39 years of experience in the financial services and fintech, insurance and insurtech, and aviation sectors, he specializes in banking, arbitration, foreign investment, and mergers and acquisitions.

During his career he has served as president and member of several ad hoc committees in annulment proceedings under the ICSID Convention; president of the Board of Directors of the Dispute Resolution Commission of the Chamber of Industry of Guatemala; participated as ad hoc Judge in the Tiu Tojin vs. State of Guatemala of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, was Member for Guatemala before the International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce -ICC- (2006-2018), member of the Editorial Board of IURISTEC (Compilation of Publications of Annotated Judicial Judgments), University Professor, Columnist in El Periódico and former Dean of the Faculty of Legal and Social Sciences of Rafael Landívar University.

Professional Memberships

Member, College of Lawyers and Notaries of Guatemala

Member, IBA Poverty and Social Development Committee

Member, American Chamber of Commerce in Guatemala (AMCHAM)

Member, Latin American Arbitrage Committee, International Commerce Chamber (ICC)

Member, International Bar Association (IBA)

Member, Latin American Arbitration Association (ALARB)

Languages Spoken

Spanish, English

Work Highlights

- Chair an Ad Hoc Committee on annulment in an ICSID case that is about to conclude its work when it communicates the respective annulment decision (ICSID case No. ARB/12/20)

- Participated in the acquisition by Promerica Financial Corporation of Banco Citibank de Guatemala, S.A., Cititarjetas, Limitada and other related companies; in an operation that will reach US$ 1,474 billion in assets and nearly 100 bank branches.

- Consortium – Legal (Guatemala) acted as Local Counsel for the Sole Lead Manager and Bookrunner of the Notes issued by the Republic of Guatemala in the Luxembourg Stock Exchange. The issuance was made for US$500,000,000.00 but the Sole Lead Manager and Bookrunner received purchase orders in aggregate of US$1.69BN.

- Acted as counsel to Citibank, N.A. (Sucursal Guatemala) to grant a loan of approximately US$3,600,000.00 to Pegamorteros de Guatemala, S.A.

- Acted as special counsel to Banco de America Central, S.A. (BAC Guatemala) to obtain a US$50,000,000.00 loan from a bank syndicate led by Banco Latinoamericano de Comercio Exterior, S.A.