EGYPT Law and Practice Contributed by: Amr A. Abbas, Ahmed Abdel Hakeem, Khaled Abou El Wafa and Adham Ahmed Saied, Matouk Bassiouny & Hennawy
Matouk Bassiouny & Hennawy 12 Mohamed Ali Genah Street Garden City
Cairo Egypt
Tel: +202 2796 2042 Fax: +202 2795 4221 Email: amr.abbas@matoukbassiouny.com Web: www.matoukbassiouny.com
1. Identifying Assets in the Jurisdiction 1.1 Options to Identify Another Party’s Asset Position Under the Egyptian legal system, enforcement may be carried out against assets which encompass both tan - gible and intangible assets, including shares, bonds, and commercial papers. In this regard, the process of identifying such assets is primarily left to the creditor, who is required to investigate and identify the assets they seek to claim. However, the process of investigating the defendant’s assets and identifying the elements constituting their financial patrimony is often a complex and burden - some task. In all cases, there are a number of public registers that might help identify a defendant’s assets, including the Real Estate Register’s Office for the identification of immovables and the Commercial Register for the identification of commercial companies. A company’s entry in the Commercial Register shows material infor - mation about the company, such as: • the existence of any liens on its assets; and • whether the company is subject to bankruptcy proceedings. In addition, if the defendant is a listed company on the Egyptian stock exchange, it might be possible to identify its assets from its disclosures and financial • its headquarters; • board members;
statements. Egyptian law also obliges banks to dis - close the financial position of debtors subject to the fulfilment of certain judicial procedures. Moreover, the Central Depository and Registry Law of Financial Instruments creates a centralised system that keeps records of all shares, including the names of owners and transactions that take place with those shares. Thus, it can be used to determine the defend - ant’s ownership of shares and financial instruments. Egyptian law permits the issuance of different types of domestic judgments, subject to the nature and juris - diction of the competent courts (ie, civil or criminal courts). Egyptian jurisprudence advances the follow - ing categorisations of judgments. Categorisation Based on Finality of Judgments A final judgment puts an end to the whole dispute, a part thereof, or a secondary matter in response to the parties’ pleas (eg, lack of jurisdiction). These judgments have a res judicata effect that prevents the litigating parties from filing another action for the same matter. However, these judgments might still be subject to appeal. 2. Domestic Judgments 2.1 Types of Domestic Judgments Non-final judgments do not settle the dispute and do not provide a final opinion in a particular matter. They include judgments referring the matter to an expert for financial or technical investigations or inspection.
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