Bio

Iker Arriola Penalosa represents and advises clients on a variety of issues and operations. His areas of expertise include mergers and acquisitions, corporate law and antitrust. Since September 2022, Iker acts as resident partner of the Firm’s European office in Madrid. With 25 years of experience advising some of the largest and most recognized international companies, as well as important Mexican companies, Iker always takes a leading position in the business and strategic projects of his clients. Iker represents clients in a broad range of legal matters, predominantly including mergers and acquisitions (public and private). Iker also has an important track record representing clients in financing transactions and capital markets, including debt offerings and initial public offerings of shares. Among other representative matters, Iker participated in Kansas City Southern’s acquisition of Transportación Ferroviaria Mexicana in 2005, represented Financiera Indepedencia, SOFOM in the initial public offering in Bolsa Mexicana de Valores, Pfizer Inc. in the sale of its nutrition business to Nestlé S.A (“Merger Control Matter of the Year” by Global Competition Review in 2013), the shareholders of Consorcio Comex in the sale of that company to PPG Industries, Inc. (the largest private M&A operation in Mexico in 2014), the shareholders of Universidad del Valle de México in their sale to Laureate Education Inc., the shareholders of Grupo Turin in the sale of that company to Mars Inc. and, more recently, advised Live Nation Entertainment Inc. in their acquisition of the controlling interest of OCESA by purchasing Grupo Televisa’s participation and a portion of CIE’s shareholding and Grupo Financiero Banorte in the negotiation, structuring and execution of its strategic alliance with Rappi through which both companies will become 50% owners of newly created digital bank. Iker also has extensive experience in antitrust matters, including antitrust investigations and merger proceedings. Iker has represented clients in antitrust cases in a distinguished variety of M&A and competition investigations across a wide range of industries and sectors, including pharmaceuticals, construction, consumer products, food and beverage, transportation, energy, banking and telecommunications. Among other representative M&A distressed transactions he has recently represented two foreign investors in the acquisition of a Mexican transportation company and another in the education sector. Iker also acted as lead counsel for the equity side of the restructuring of Altán Redes as part of a pre-pack process to allow the company exiting concurso mercantil (insolvency process in Mexico similar to a US Chapter 11). Such transaction won the 2023 “International Company Turnaround/Transaction of the Year Award” granted by the TMA Turnaround and Transaction Award Committee. Iker has been recognized as a Leading Lawyer in Mexico for several years, and in various subjects, in the most prestigious international magazines. In 2012 he was named by Expansión magazine as one of the “30 Promises in their 30s”. In 2024, Iker was listed as one of the most outstanding professionals in Latin America in the first edition of The Legal 500’s M&A Powerlist Latam. In 2023 and 2024 was also recognized as a Stand-out Lawyer by the prestigious publication Thomson Reuters. Iker obtained his law degree (JD) from Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City and his Master of Law (LLM) from Universidad Complutense de Madrid, in Madrid Spain. His native language is Spanish, and he is fluent in English.