GUATEMALA Law and Practice Contributed by: Ignacio Andrade Aycinena, Alejandro Solares Solares, Claudia Pontaza Rubio and Lester Meda Ruano, Lex Atlas
• The maquila sector remains stagnant. Garment manufacturers have not expanded their operations. The most important outbound activity was as follows. • Banco Industrial announced new investments in a Honduras Bank. • Cerveceria Centroamericana announced that it was buying large food producer and distributor Harvest Hill for USD1.4 billion. 1.3 Key Industries The industries that experienced the most significant M&A activity in the past 12 months in Guatemala are telecommunications, energy and the financial sector. The construction and housing sectors expanded their activity during 2024. In regulated and licence-requiring entities, the primary legal means for acquiring a company in Guatemala is through the acquisition of shares or equity participa - tion in the licensed entity, depending on whether it is a share-based company. The acquisition target holds the licence, which is only transferable in rare cases, except in the financial sector where banks and finan - cial companies’ shares are transferable with approval from the authorities. In other instances, and regard - ing non-regulated entities, such as real estate, buying assets is a preferred acquisition method. 2.2 Primary Regulators For M&A, a new regulator, the Competition Super - intendency ( Superintendencia de Competencia ) has been sworn in, and internal regulations were issued in October 2025 on anticompetitive behaviour, with sanctions coming into force in December 2026. The Registry of the Securities Market is the regulator for securities issuers under Decree 34-96 of the Guate - malan Congress, and is entrusted with the registry of issuance of securities and public offerings of securi - ties. M&A by financial institutions, insurance companies and other entities controlled by a regulator is sub - 2. Overview of Regulatory Field 2.1 Acquiring a Company
ject to prior approval of the Monetary Board and the Superintendency of Banks. In the case of deals involving privately owned companies, prior approval will be required from December 2026 onwards under the Competition Law for M&A transactions, which will result in combined assets of USD360 million in Guate - mala or combined sales of USD460 million. For telecommunications, the regulator is the Super - intendency of Telecommunications, although regula - tions are not competition related but concerned with essential and limited resources. In the energy sec - tor, the main regulator is the National Electric Energy Commission, which oversees authorisations for ren - dering distribution and energy transportation services and their assignment. Mining and oil exploration and production activities licences are assignable with approval from the Minis - try of Energy and Mines. Oil exploration contracts and licences are assignable the approval from the Ministry of Energy and Mines. 2.3 Restrictions on Foreign Investments There are almost no restrictions on foreign invest - ments in Guatemala, except for certain constitution - ally mandated limitations. However, Guatemala’s legal provisions promote foreign investment. The following restrictions or differentiations neverthe - less remain in place for foreign investments: • forestry preservation concessions by the National Forestry Institute; • banking and insurance regulations for the estab - lishment of foreign branches for foreign insurers and investment banking laws; such regulations allow for the establishment of Guatemalan branch - es of foreign banks and insurance entities; • restrictions allowing adverse possession of real estate only for Guatemalan and Guatemalan- owned companies; and • restrictions allowing for land grants only for Guate - malan and Guatemalan entities. All other restrictions have been removed.
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