About

Corona’s in-house legal team is comprised of six lawyers and one compliance specialist under supervision of Bernardo Ávila, legal and compliance manager. Two of these lawyers, as well as the manager, work for specific regulatory and external matters with the corporate affairs vice president. It is a high-impact team that offers specialised legal counsel to all functional areas of the corporation, providing efficient and reliable support for Colombia, Central America, Mexico, the US and China. Each member of the team is proficient in matters that are critical and strategic for Corona’s operations such as M&A, corporate, intellectual property, antitrust, consumer and environmental law, litigation and compliance. The team also developed a close relationship with senior management and internal clients. Ávila highlights that the, ‘team culture and dedication to service has led us to achieve a score above 96% in the annual satisfaction survey for the past three years. The legal team has successfully faced the challenge to serve an organisation with more than 9,000 employees, 29 manufacturing plants in six countries and nearly 40 retail stores with a reduced number of lawyers and limited support from external counsel’. The legal team continues to be a key and active player in strategic transactions for Corona together with senior management and in some cases with the support of external counsel. The most important transactions and projects in the past year have been the negotiation and sale of the company’s stake in its investments in Companhia Sulamericana de Ceramica in Brazil and the structuring and negotiation for the financing of the second tranche of a cement plant it is building in Antioquia in partnership with Cementos Molins from Spain. Also, the team is involved in the drafting and negotiation of a mining operation agreement for a mine which will provide the cement business with the raw material for its industrial activities, and the acquisition of Agromil, a fertiliser and organic amendments company which marks Corona’s entry into agribusiness, among others. In addition, the team has advised senior management in significant matters related to the restructuring of Corona’s sales and distribution channels, the design and implementation of the company’s innovative compliance program, Corona’s successful defence in a large commercial agency dispute with the support of external counsel and the legal framework for the corporate start-up accelerator.