After receiving the approval from the Comisión Nacional del Mercado de Valores (CNMV) [Spanish Securities and Exchange Commission] at the beginning of June to purchase 45% of EBN Capital, Grupo Financiero Atlántida (GFA) has become the first group from Honduras to obtain authorisation to access the Spanish financial market. The authorisation was in fact granted  to Iberoatlántida, owner of Inversiones Atlántida (Invatlan) in Spain.

The group’s arrival in Spain strengthens the international expansion of GFA, which, with a track record spanning 111 years, already had a presence in El Salvador, Nicaragua, Panama and Ecuador, in addition to Honduras. Its entry into EBN Capital, EBN Banco’s investment fund manager, is a very important step in its expansion outside Latin America.

Diversified activity
The CNMV’s assessment confirmed that the Honduran-born financial conglomerate complies with the requirements of the stringent regulations governing the Spanish market. As a preliminary step, as of 2021, GFA already held a 9.9% stake in EBN Banco. Moreover, in recent years it has diversified its business into key industries, such as banking, insurance, pensions, leasing, securities and investment management.

Group’s CEO Guillermo Bueso explained, “Our vision of growth is being consolidated with the approval from the CNMV, which gives us the backing to show we are on the right track. We are very pleased with this important step forward, which marks a milestone in our financial history by being the first group from Honduras to gain access to the Spanish financial market.”

Speaking about the group’s arrival in Spain, Bueso added, “We come to countries to stay, because we believe they add to our value proposition and, in that sense, Spain is a strategic market for our business. EBN Capital has extraordinary experience in launching and managing its own differentiated, alternative and innovative products.”

Latin American investment in Spain
The authorisation came at the same time as the 8th Ibero-American Congress of the Business Council Alliance for Ibero-America (CEAPI), which was held from 2 to 4 June in Seville, and which Bueso attended. He did actually participate in the “Latin Americans investing in Spain” round table, moderated by Elisa Carbonell, CEO of ICEX.

During his speech, Bueso emphasised the strategic phase that relations between the two regions are currently experiencing: “The opportunities ahead are beyond anything we can currently imagine. We are experiencing a remarkable period of partnership between Spanish and Latin American companies.”

In 2024, Spain was the second largest destination for foreign direct investment from Latin America, with a cumulative flow of over 66.8 billion euros. The main factors behind this are legal certainty, institutional stability, international projection and cultural affinity.

^{Photo: Atlantida Bank}