Below you will find  EY's summary of the most significant measures adopted by the governments of Central America, Panama and the Dominican Republic to mitigate the economic, tax and legal impact from COVID-19.This information is under development and will be updated when governments modify current measures or adopt new ones.   We highlight the importance of complying with the measures adopted by the countries and staying home to prevent the virus spread. Click on each country for more details.

EY Law Covid 19

EY Law is an international law firm, affiliated to the EY global firm with offices in 150 countries around the world and more than 250.000 professionals. In the Central America region the firm has more than 1.300 employees, with more than 100 lawyers rendering legal advisory services and offices in Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, and Nicaragua. 

The firm is acknowledged for its pre-eminent trajectory, forward thinking and innovation, based on the highest ethical and professional standard and represents important multinational and regional clients – including numerous Fortune 500 companies – which grant the firm the gold standard for high-end legal advice.

EY Law offers its clients an innovative and transformative approach by delivering legal services in a way 

that helps minimize the gap between business advisors and legal counsel. 

Our lawyers work in an integrated manner with professionals from other lines of the EY business, including Assurance, Tax, Transactions and Advisory, to deliver integral, better informed and professional services. 

Our lawyers understand the increasingly complex framework of this global economy. With the experience and expertise of our Law teams, we can help clients assess and minimize the risk of their business decisions. We provide holistic guidance around strategic business decisions as well as offer support services that can increase efficiency and reduce the cost of some routine legal activities. Through our global reach, our multidisciplinary teams can provide assistance wherever the business of our clients requires it. 

The Costa Rican team is regarded among the best in the country, with a high-profile client comprised of multinational and regional clients doing business in Central America and abroad. With strategic recruitments in different ranks and sectors of practice, the firm has reinforced its team and expanded its service offering, to cope with new demands and needs of its clients. Such is the case with transportation, data protection and data privacy, controversy, infrastructure and financial services. EY Law has participated in most of the significant transactions for values in excess of $1.2 billion in a variety of sectors such as telecommunications, retail, hospitality, real estate, financial, agri-business, health, food and beverages and services and continues collaborating with client in post-closing legal needs, such as company rationalization, compliance, regulatory and post merger integration. The firm is also focussing on Legal Managed Services as a tool to add value to GCs and in house counsel´s duties and responsibilities, bringing high end technology to legal services. 

• Asset finance
• Banking
• Competition
• Financial restructuring
• Financial services regulatory
• Investment funds
• M&A
• Private equity
• Private equity funds
• Project development
• Project finance
• Real estate finance
• Real estate funds
• Structured finance/securitisation
• Trade finance

Corporate/Mergers & Acquisitions:

Hernán Pacheco: hernan.pacheco@cr.ey.com

Fernando Vargas Winiker: Fernando.Vargas.Winiker@cr.ey.com

Banking:

Arturo Apéstegui: 

Arturo.Apestegui@cr.ey.com

Competition & Antitrust

Alexander Salazar Solórzano: 

Alexander.Salazar.Solorzano@cr.ey.com

Real Estate & Hospitality:

Alejandro Antillón Appel: Alejandro.Antillon.Appel@cr.ey.com 

Recent transactional highlights:

Corporate/Mergers & Acquisitions

• Represented Sanford Health in the due diligence process, negotiations and drafting of transaction documents, including shareholders agreement and other governance matters, in the acquisition of a minority participation in Hospital Metropolitano in Costa Rica.
• Represented a major media and telecommunications multinational company in the due diligence for the acquisition of the operations of a telecommunications mobile services operator in the region. 
• Conducted the due diligence process and report for a private equity fund in the process of analysis to invest in a cable services provider in Costa Rica.
• Advices Kimberly Clark, as leading external counsel, in its Central American, and now Panamanian and Dominican day-to-day operations, including any financial issues related to corporate matters and transactions with local distributors.
• Advised the INTRAPAC GROUP (based in the United States of America) in the approximately US$250 million financing project for the acquisition by ONCAP (arguably the largest investment fund group of Canada) of 100% equity stake in the subsidiaries of the INTRAPAC GROUP, specifically for the Spanish and Costa Rican subsidiaries. Also advised the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce as primary lender, and its legal advisor, Davies, a Canadian Law Firm.
• Advises Compagnie Fruitiere International in the acquisition of on-going agro-business operations. The transactions have a component of financing issues resulting from intercompany loans of Seller and termination thereof, as well as structuring of financing.
• Advices several international conglomarates in their shared services operations in Costa Rica (including Bacardi Group, Bank of America, Thomson Reuters, Grupo BIMBO of Mexico, EVONIK Corporation, etc.)
• Advices Corporacion Multi-Inversiones (CMI), a Guatemalan conglomerate, in several of its Costa Rican investments in its retail operations (including corporate matters, financial transactions and tax matters
• Represented a local snacks company in the sale of its business to a Mexican-Guatemalan joint venture, including regulatory approvals, pre-closing corporate rationalization and ancillary agreements. 

Real Estate & Hospitality

• We represented the seller in the sale of all the assets and operations that comprises the North Peninsula of Papagayo in Costa Rica.  
• We represented Enjoy Group and other partners in the acquisition of the Doubletree Hilton Hotel in Puntarenas. Our involvement included all the steps of the process from Due Diligence to drafting, negotiation and execution of closing documents and follow up filings.    
• Advising SunVesta in all matters pertaining to financing and developing  an ultra luxury seven star resort in the Costa Rican North Pacific,  exactly in the Papagayo Basin, Guanacaste.  This is a 175 room, US$ 250MM hotel and resort.  This project is particularly complex because of the special legal regime that governs the Peninsula Papagayo Tourism Zone. In this case, Mr. Antillón’s expertise, in conjunction with Alvaro Leiva’s background as legal counsel to the Costa Rican Tourism Institute at the time when the special regime was put in place, gave EY Law an edge over all other firms and got us the engagement.

Banking

• Advising an international client as borrower in the negotiation of a syndicated loan agreement for close to $140 million.
• Structuring, drafting and closing a Guaranty Trust for debentures totaling $10 million acquired by a Canadian fund.
• Advising a local hospitality player in renegotiating a $35 million loan.
• Advising a local bank in negotiating a $35 million loan with a multilateral bank. 
• Legal Advisors for a Central American investment fund in the setting up of an SPV for investment and operation of commercial real estate assets.

• Automotive
• Banking
• Consumer goods and services
• Energy
• Financial services
• Government and public policy
• Healthcare
• Media
• Oil and gas
• Real estate
• Tech and telecoms
• Tourism
• Transport
• Utilities