Terencio José García Montenegro

Practice Areas

Terencio García is the Regional Managing Partner of García & Bodán, Managing Partner of García & Bodán in Managua (Nicaragua), founder of the firm in 2000 and Regional Director of the Energy and Natural Resources practice of the firm.

He is recognized as a prominent lawyer in Nicaragua, leading the first Nicaraguan law firm that has expanded to Central America, becoming the largest law firm of Nicaragua by headcount.

He has participated in major corporate transactions in Nicaragua and in the region, such as the biggest privatizations in telecoms, international bidding for hydroelectric, geothermal, wind energy companies, etc. and corporate structuring of the country’s largest companies and subsidiaries of foreign companies in Nicaragua. His participation in great transactions has allowed him exposure to shares, boards of directors, shareholders, quorum of attendance and decision-making, commercial brokers, commercial contracts, commercial registers, shareholder agreements issues, among others.

He is considered one of the lawyers with a relentless impetus and has been working over the last decade towards attracting foreign direct investment to our Central American region; palpable proof it’s his permanent and active participation as a member of various trade chambers and associations. He has also worked on a number of projects, being probably the latter the largest project in what the attraction and promotion of investments and exports concerns, the project named “Defining the Legal Figure of Investment Promotion Agencies Network (APIs) of Central America (CA)”.

His deep knowledge of energy regulations has allowed him to advice foreign leading companies, assisted them in their entry to the region, which has translate in several of the biggest energy projects in the region, as well as his participation in some of the major mergers & acquisitions in Central America.

Practice areas:

- Corporate-Commercial

- Mergers and Acquisitions

- Transactional

- Renewable Energy

- Oil and Gas

- Free Zones

Professional Memberships

- International Bar Association (IBA).

- Louisiana Bar Association.

- Order of the Knights of Malta.

- Former Secretary of the Board of Directors of the Panamanian Nicaraguan Chamber of Commerce (CACOPANIC).

- Former member of the Board of Directors of the Nicaraguan Chinese Association in Nicaragua.

- Former member of the Board of Directors of Fabretto Foundation (Nicaragua).

- Director of the Board of Directors of the American Chamber of Commerce of Nicaragua (AMCHAM), 2021 – 2022.

- Director of the Board of Directors of the Mexican-Nicaraguan Chamber of Industry and Commerce (CAMEXNIC) period 2021-2023.

Publications

- Professor at the Universidad Centroamericana (UCA) to students pursuing their Master in Law.

- Professor of Business Law at Universidad Americana (UAM).

- Lectures on Law at several universities in Nicaragua and Central America level.

- Contribution in Annual Report of World Bank and the International Finance Corporation “Doing Business”, 2009-2014.

- Contribution in Construction and Infrastructure Disputes: A Global Handbook (Nicaragua Chapter), Globe Business Publishing Ltd., 2013.

- Legal Author of “Agenda 21 and Latin America: The Challenges of Implementing Environmental Law and Policy”.

- Credit Limit in the Region, Mercados & Tendencias Magazine, 2008.

- Speaker on tax topics, Official Investment and Export Promotion Agency of Nicaragua (PRONicaragua), 2008.

- Special Issue of SMEs Development in the Region, Estrategia & Negocios Magazine, 2007.

- Speaker at Interamerican Bar Association Conference, Singapore, 2007.

- Speaker at various conferences of International Living in Nicaragua, 2007.

- Collaboration with renowned magazines such as Estrategia & Negocios, Mercados & Tendencias and El Economista in articles on legal issues.

Work Highlights

- Counseled to Mexican dairy company Grupo Lala in their acquisition of Eskimo, S.A., Nicaragua’s largest dairy producer.

- Counseled to Grupo Lala on all matters related to construction and start-up of their dairy processing plant in Nicaragua.

- Counseled to Grupo Lala, in their purchase of 100% of the shares of La Perfecta, a Nicaraguan producer and distributor of milk, dairy products and juices, which has a distribution network which reaches over 25,000 retail outlets throughout Central America.

- Counseled United Continental Holdings, Inc. in the merger of the companies United Airlines Inc. and Continental Airlines Inc. in Nicaragua and Honduras, by which United Airlines Inc. was absorbed by Continental Airlines, Inc., and adopted the name United Airlines, Inc.

- Representative of nonprofit international organizations dedicated to the environment conservation and the certification of good practices in the management of natural resources such as Rainforest Alliance and The Nature Conservancy.

- Assisted and represented GE Capital, owner of 75% of the Bank of Central America (BAC) in the region for the sale of its participation by USD 1.92 billion.

- Assisted Grupo Ecos and SI Capital in the acquisition of a minority stake in Escotel Investments, S.A., an investment vehicle of Enertika, an engineering company based in Spain, and world leader in power generation and energy efficiency projects. The advice was provided in Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua.

- Counseled Unifirst Nicaragua, S.A., a subsidiary of the transnational corporation UniFirst Corporation (U1st), on subjects related to its incorporation as free zone user company, labor issues and in a leasing contract for its industrial facilities.

- Counseled Pallan Group, a Canadian company committed to the sustainable harvest of timber and producing high quality lumber products, on their USD 1.3 million acquisition of Dusa.

- Counseled and represented Empresa Industrial Arrocera Altamira, S.A. (IAASA) in a USD 13 million dollar sale of assets, being the sellers from Costa Rica and the buyers from Nicaragua.

- Counseled and represented Payless Shoesource due to an audit notification from the General Custom Directorate (DGA), which culminated in a series of findings allegedly by declaring value of the goods lower than those that customs rules set and resulted in an alleged million-dollar sum, obtaining favorable resolution.

- Counseled the client in their purchase of a real property for their free zone operations in all legal aspects of the transaction.

- Counseled in the purchase by America Móvil in telecommunications companies ENITEL and MEGATEL in Nicaragua and Honduras.

- Counseled in attempted privatization of the largest hydroelectric plant of Nicaragua in which the Firm advised AES Corporation for the acquisition of the Hydroelectric Hidrogesa, as well as Generadora de Electricidad de Occidente, S.A. (GEOSA) and Generadora Eléctrica Central, S.A. (GECSA), although a proposal to acquire these generators was not presented.

Languages Spoken

Spanish

English

Education