5 State Companies to Go Public

EghtesadOnline: The shares of five state companies valued at 13.69 trillion rials ($360.28 million) will be put on sale by Iran Privatization Organization on April 16.

News ID: ۷۷۵۳۱۰

09 April 2017

The sales include a 100% block sale of Esfarayen Industrial Complex worth 8.68 trillion rials ($228.5 million) with each of the 1.35 billion shares valued at 6,394 rials (17 cents); a 100% block sale of Luleh Gostar Esfarayen Company worth 2.34 trillion rials ($61.7 million) with each of the 1.8 billion shares valued at 1,298 rials (3 cents) and a 40% block sale of Pars Melli Agricultural, Industrial and Livestock Corporation worth 2.14 trillion rials ($56.48 million) with each of the 130.13 million shares valued at 16,494 rials (43 cents).

The two other firms include a 43.52% block sale of Iran International Engineering Company worth 457.11 billion rials ($12.02 million) with each of the 7.83 million shares valued at 58,353 rials ($1.55) and a 94.96% block sale of Mashin Sazi Lorestan worth 56.51 billion rials ($1.487 million) with each of the 129.62 million shares valued at 436 rials (1 cent).

According to Mirali Ashraf Abdollah Pouri-Hosseini, the head of IPO, the remaining 323 out of 1,713 enterprises on the privatization list will be transferred to the public hands in the new Iranian year (started March 21). “Up until now, the organization has paid its 120 trillion rials ($3.2 billion) budgetary allocation, 50 trillion rials ($1.33 billion) went for clearing debts and the rest went into the government coffers,” he was quoted as saying back in March.

“The High Council of Transfer has underlined the importance of pressing ahead with privatization, as the Leader of Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei is not satisfied with the slow pace of privatization,” Financial Tribune quoted him as saying.

Minister of Economic Affairs and Finance Ali Tayyebnia has blamed the slow momentum on stiff resistance mounted by provincial officials and some parliamentarians to privatization.

“Not a single day goes by without the ministry receiving letters threatening me and my deputies with impeachment,” he said.

Tayyebnia noted that Article 44 of the Iranian Constitution was supposed to bring about an economic revolution in the country but when it comes to privatization of a company, the beneficiaries exert pressure from all directions.