French Insurance Code
In forceThe value resulting from the valuation must be included in the assessment of the realisable value of the investments provided for in articles R. 343-11 and R. 343-12.
II.The appraisal of the value of all or part of the assets of undertakings is carried out under the following conditions:
a) The Autorité de contrôle prudentiel et de résolution notifies the undertaking, by registered letter, of the list of assets whose value is to be appraised and the name of the appraiser it has chosen for each of them.
b) Within a maximum of fifteen days from the date of dispatch of this letter, the undertaking shall inform the Authority, by registered letter, for each of the aforementioned items, whether it accepts the expert appointed by the Authority as the sole expert, whose conclusion will be binding on both parties, or whether it requests an expert appraisal by both experts, firstly by two experts, the first appointed by the Authority, the second appointed by the undertaking, and then, in the event of disagreement between these two experts, by a third expert, whose conclusion will be binding on both parties.
If the company opts for an assessment by both parties, it will indicate in its response the name, address and qualifications of its expert, and will attach to this response a letter from the expert accepting the assignment and stating that he is prepared to carry it out within the time limit set below.
c) As soon as it has received the response referred to in the two previous paragraphs, the Authority will invite the sole expert or the two experts to carry out the assessment. It will send this opinion to the company.
The expert(s) shall not be required to take an oath.
The companies are required to provide the experts, as soon as they are appointed, and at their request, whether joint or not, with all the means of investigation that the experts deem useful for carrying out their assignment, in particular, in the case of buildings, for visiting the premises and acquainting themselves with the deeds and documents relating to the buildings being appraised.
d) The sole expert or the two experts must submit their conclusions and notify them to the two parties within a maximum period of three months from the date of the Authority's opinion, as set out above.
If there is disagreement between the conclusions of the two experts, the third party expert shall be appointed immediately, either by the authority after agreement between the parties or, failing agreement between the parties, within fifteen days of the submission of the conclusions of the two experts, at the request of the first party, by the president of the judicial court of the location of the registered office or special office for France, or, in the case of transactions carried out in France under the freedom to provide services, of the location of the real estate assets, ruling in summary proceedings on a writ of summons. The third-party expert must submit his conclusions and notify them to both parties within two months of his appointment.
If, after having been appointed in the above-mentioned manner, an expert is prevented from fulfilling his mission within the time limits set, a new appointment is immediately made in the same manner, and the time limits are duly extended. However, if the failing expert is the company's expert, the Autorité de contrôle prudentiel et de résolution may immediately request the President of the Court to appoint a single expert, whose conclusions will be binding on both parties. It may make the same request if it has not received a response to its request for an expert appraisal within the timeframe set out in d above, or if the company's expert has not submitted his report within the timeframe set out in b of this article.
e) The costs of the expert appraisal shall be borne by the companies. The expert(s) shall send to the undertaking, together with their report, a statement of their fees and expenses and shall send a copy to the Autorité de contrôle prudentiel et de résolution. Within a fortnight of receiving the statement, the company must inform the Authority either that it has made the payment or that it intends to dispute the amount claimed.
