Tripoli, 25 July:
Italy is continuing to unfreeze seized Libyan . . .[restrict]assets, worth LD 2.04 billion (€1.3 billion) held by the Libyan investment Authority and the Central Bank.
The courts have already handed back to Libya assets including a luxury Roma apartment, land on the Sicilian island of Pantelleria and two motorcycles, one of them a Harley Davidson.
Now comes the more substantial transfer of a 0.58 percent stake in Italian oil company Eni. worth some €354 million. A court has ruled that ownership should be made over to the LIA. Eni is the largest foreign oil and gas company operating in Libya,
A further decision is expected in September on Libya’s remaining frozen assets in Italy. These include a the four per cent stake in Unicredit, currently worth €541 million, 1.1 percent of which is held by the LIA, with the rest owned by the Libyan Central Bank. Other assets to be handed over will be a stake in car and truck maker Fiat, football club Juventus and engineering and fedence group Finmeccaica. [/restrict]
