Shearman & Sterling has succeeded in obtaining an order from the Court of Appeals in Rome overturning the seizure of approximately €1 billion in assets held in Italy by the Libyan Investment Authority (“LIA”). The seizure was implemented by Italian judicial authorities in March 2012 following a request received from the International Criminal Court in the Hague.
In its order dated July 23, 2012, the Court of Appeals expressly upheld Shearman & Sterling’s argument that the assets in question (comprising principally LIA’s equity stakes in Italian-listed companies UniCredit, Eni and Finmeccanica) are now under the control of the Government of Free Libya and therefore are not subject to the ICC’s jurisdiction. With this decision, the Court of Appeals ordered the immediate release of LIA’s approximately €400 million equity stake in Eni but deferred the release of LIA’s other assets until September 20, in order to enable certain issues relating to legal title to be clarified by the Italian Financial Police.
The Libyan Investment Authority is a public agency of the Government of Libya that acts as a sovereign wealth fund, with a particular focus on making investments outside Libya. LIA is also the sole shareholder of various other Libyan sovereign wealth funds, including the Libyan Foreign Investment Company, the Libyan African Investment Portfolio, the Oil Investment Fund and the Economic and Social Development Fund. Eni is one of world’s leading oil and gas companies and has the largest market capitalization of any Italian listed company.
Michael S. Bosco and Giovanni Battista Bruno of Shearman & Sterling’s Rome office are representing LIA in this matter.
