Two IPOs in Pipeline at Tehran Stock Exchange

EghtesadOnline: Tehran Stock Exchange is set to witness initial public offerings for two entities: a petrochemical company and an agricultural enterprise over the next two weeks, TSE's listing manager announced on Tuesday.

News ID: ۷۸۳۰۷۹

27 June 2018

"Now that fresh money supply has flooded the market and there is high demand, especially from lower cap investors, time is ripe to introduce new companies and meet market demand," Esmaeil Dargahi also told Bourse Press.

"The best companies ready for their IPO have been prioritized and will be offered in 2-3 months, as several other companies are also going through the listing process."

According to Dargahi, the first company is Pars Petrochemical Company, of which 5-10% of shares will be offered next week or the one after, Financial Tribune reported.

The company is worth 6 trillion rials ($142.85 million) and its IPO is being pushed by its major shareholder, Persian Gulf Petrochemical Industries Company.

Established in 1998, PPC is located in Bushehr Province's Pars Special Economic Energy Zone. According to its website, it started its operations the following year with a focus on utilizing the sizable reserves of South Pars Gas Field.

South Pars is the world’s largest gas field shared between Iran and Qatar and covering an area of 3,700 square kilometers of Iran’s territorial waters in the Persian Gulf.

The second IPO is for Pars Agricultural Company valued at 32 billion rials ($7.7 million).

Dargahi did not mention the share percent to be offered or the IPO's exact date.

The company has long been on Iranian Privatization Organization's sale list. A 40% stake in PAC made up of 130.13 million shares valued at $45.5 million failed to find any buyers in a mid-March offering. It has been included in all of TSE's fresh privatization attempts to date but to no avail.

The disparity between the IPO value quoted by Dargahi and the privatization attempts suggests that the public offering will be for a much smaller stake in the firm.

As for the other companies in the pipeline, the official pointed to Novin Investment Bank, Seamorgh Company, Ofogh Kourosh Chain Store, Khorasan Petrochemical Company, Persian Steel Aria Company and Rail Pardaz Novin Company as firms already listed or undergoing the process.

Tehran Stock Exchange has recently broken several records in a series of uninterrupted wins, with many analysts stating that it's time for new public offerings.

A ballooning money supply, fast-devaluing currency against the US dollar and the saturation of the capital's parallel markets have all caused stocks to attract investors after months of subpar performance.