ITALY Law and Practice Contributed by: Marco Torsello, Federica Serrantoni, Lucia Pontremoli and Gregorio Baldoli, ArbLit
(ICC, ICSID, Milan Chamber of Arbitration (CAM), Swiss Rules, UNCITRAL), including in connection with post-M&A disputes, IP law and contracts in the energy, construction and pharmaceutical industries. He regularly advises Italian and international clients on commercial, corporate insolvency and EU law matters and represents them in proceedings pending before Italian courts.
ArbLit Via Alberto da Giussano 15 20145 Milan Italy Tel: +39 02 8425 4810 Fax: +39 02 8425 4819 Email: info@arblit.com Web: www.arblit.com
1. Identifying Assets in the Jurisdiction 1.1 Options to Identify Another Party’s Asset Position To identify the asset position of a potential debtor, the creditor may resort to publicly available information, including via the following channels. • To identify real estate properties, searches can be made of the Public Register of Immovable Property ( Conservatoria dei Registri Immobiliari ). Notably, deeds involving the transfer of ownership or other rights in rem involving real estate are transcribed in this public register in favour of the party acquiring the right in rem and against the party transferring the right; other rights concerning real estate (such as the establishment of a mortgage and subse - quent events) are likewise documented therein. In all these cases, therefore, third parties can search the deeds entered in the registry in the name of the potential debtor, and they are allowed to extract copies of the deeds by virtue of which the relevant rights were established, transferred or modified.
• To assess the existence of ownership or other rights concerning vehicles, the Public Motor Vehi - cles Register ( Pubblico Registro Automobilistico ) is available. Similar registers also exist for ships and aircraft. • If the debtor is an entrepreneur (including, but not limited to, companies), the main source of infor - mation is the Commercial Register (held by local Chambers of Commerce), with which all entrepre - neurs (regardless of the legal form under which the business is conducted) must register. This register includes information concerning, inter alia, the identity of the shareholders, directors and audi - tors, the identification of shares or quotas owned by each shareholder, and information concern - ing transfer of rights in those shares or quotas. Furthermore, the Commercial Register provides access to copies of the deeds published therein, including financial statements and other deeds (such as mergers, demergers, transfer of corporate interests, and leases). • To identify a debtor’s assets for attachment, the creditor may also request that the bailiff carry out an electronic search of official public databases,
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