Mohammad Saeedikia, the head of the foundation, explained that with the foundation’s shares ranging from 1% to 100% (55% on average) in 160 subsidiary companies, 150 trillion rials ($3.57 billion) of the total sales belonged to the organization.
“Considering its 12% profit, the Islamic Revolution Mostazafan Foundation netted 16 trillion rials ($380.9 million), accounting for 0.7% of Iran’s gross domestic product last year,” he said.
Earlier, Saeedikia had put the foundation’s share of GDP at 1.5%. According to his remarks in late 2016, the foundation’s revenues stood at 169 trillion rials ($4.22 billion) in the first eight months of the last Iranian year (March 2016-17), about 8% more than the previous year’s corresponding period, according to Financial Tribune.
The official had put the total value of foundation’s projects at 160 trillion rials ($4 billion) and said plans are afoot to increase the figure to 250 trillion rials ($6.25 billion) in the next three years.
“Over the past years, around 7% of the profit made by Mostazafan Foundation i.e. 800 billion rials ($19.04 million) were spent on projects aimed at reducing poverty. But this year, the foundation allocated close to 40% of earnings i.e. 4.5 trillion rials ($109.75 million) to such projects,” he told ILNA in an interview.
The Tehran-North Freeway, connecting the capital city Tehran to Chalous in Mazandaran Province, is a major project managed by Mostazafan Foundation. The mega project, worth $2.2 billion, consists of four sections spanning 121 km and has been 20 years in the making.
During a visit to the freeway’s site on June 17, Saeedikia apologized for the inordinate delays and said the freeway will fully come on stream by March 2023.
Saeedikia said the foundation has paid nearly 40 trillion rials ($952.38 million) in taxes over the past 10 years.
Asked about the value of foundation’s assets, he said, “There is no precise estimate of the value of Mostazafan Foundation’s properties as we speak. [The] assessment [process] of the value of assets is also very costly. Detailed figures are not available on the lands owned by the foundation due to legal issues and basically it is very complicated to assess the worth of assets.”
According to Saeedikia, the foundation’s affiliated companies export their products to 33 countries.
“Exports by the foundation stood at around 16 trillion rials ($380.95 million) last year, indicating a 40% rise compared to the year before. The board of trustees has given the go-ahead for allocating 3% of the overall earnings for promotion of exports and implementation of incentives,” he said, adding that 10% of the foundation are to be sold on the stock market every year.
He noted that Mostazafan Foundation has 11 holdings, 160 affiliated companies and 40,000 employees. About 70 companies were merged, handed over or dissolved in recent years to streamline the organization, adding that plans are underway to gradually pull out the foundation from a number of economic activities.
“The foundation does not intend to shut out the private sector from economic activities at all; as such we won’t make a bid for contracts worth below 1 trillion rials ($23.8 million),” he said.
Saeedikia had earlier announced that the foundation would pull out of the hospitality sector and divest its assets, as decreed by the Leader of Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei.
“The foundation owns more than 20 hotels and is planning to sell them through the stock exchange market,” he said in September.
Established in 1979, Mostazafan Foundation is the second-largest commercial enterprise in Iran and the biggest holding company in the Middle East.
Mostazafan Foundation was established in 1979 to serve the oppressed and war disabled.