NORWAY Law and Practice Contributed by: Christian Reusch, Øystein Nore Nyhus, Therese Sætre Løfsgaard and Oda Lauksund Engamo, Simonsen Vogt Wiig
Simonsen Vogt Wiig Filipstad Brygge 1 0252 Oslo Norway
Tel: +47 21 955 500 Email: post@svw.no Web: www.svw.no
1. Identifying Assets in the Jurisdiction 1.1 Options to Identify Another Party’s Asset Position There are several public registers that a claimant might check to identify the asset position of another party in Norway. The Brønnøysund Register Centre is a government body under the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries, and consists of several differ - ent national computerised registers. The most important and usable register is the Regis - ter of Business Entities, which contains information such as annual reports and financial statements for most Norwegian companies, but also foreign com - panies that are operating in Norway. The information will usually be updated as per the preceding year. It is searchable by company name or company registra - tion number. Financial information and copies of the financial statements are not available free of charge, but some websites provide abstracts of the informa - tion for free, such as proff.no. The Brønnøysund Register Centre also holds the Register of Bankruptcies, which contains informa - tion about Norwegian companies where bankruptcy proceedings have been instituted, the trustee in the bankruptcy estate and the necessary information to report a claim to the bankrupt estate. In addition to the Brønnøysund Register Centre, a claimant might check the following other publicly available registers.
• The Norwegian Ship Register (NOR) and the Nor - wegian International Ship Register (NIS) contain information about the ownership of vessels and to what extent vessels are mortgaged. They are searchable by both the owner’s name and the ves - sel’s name. • The Vehicle Register contains information about the ownership and leasing agreements of cars, and to what extent cars are mortgaged. It is searchable by the vehicle’s plate number. • The Property Register contains information about the ownership of property/real estate, and to what extent properties are mortgaged. It is searchable by property (either by cadastral numbers or by street addresses). • The Securities Registry contains information about the ownership of financial instruments, and to what extent financial instruments are mortgaged. • The Movables Register contains information about mortgages and distraints in movables, registered by debtors (not by assets); attachments on earn - ings and decisions resulting in “nothing to distrain” are also registered in the Movables Register, but this information is not publicly available. • The Petroleum Register contains information about licensees and operators of production licences, and to what extent they are mortgaged. • The Power Line Register contains information about the ownership and mortgage rights of mains power lines; however, this register is infrequently used. • The Norwegian Industrial Property Office’s data - base, which contains information about regis - tered trade marks, patents and designs, including recorded liens and other important information.
347 CHAMBERS.COM
Powered by FlippingBook