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Iran sells about $1.1B worth government shares to private sector

Business Materials 31 January 2015 17:15 (UTC +04:00)

Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 31

By Fatih Karimov - Trend: More than 38 trillion rials (about $1.1 billion) of government shares were sold to the private sector in the first 10 months of the current Iranian calendar year, started on March 21, 2014.

Some 450 billion rials worth shares were sold on the main Stock Market and 26 trillion rials were sold on the Over-The-Counter Market, Iran's Mehr news agency reported on Jan. 31.

Moreover, some 37 trillion rials (about $1.08 billion) of the shares were sold in block offering bids.

The government has envisioned a large privatization program in the Fifth Five-Year Development Plan (2010-2015), aiming to privatize about 20 percent of state-owned firms each year.

Under the present interpretation of the Article 44 of Iran's Constitution, hundreds of state-owned companies have been privatized.

More than 1,320 trillion rials (about $38 billion) of state shares have been divested in Iran since Iranian year 1384 (began in March 2005).

Around $8.2 billion of the shares were paid by the administration to its real person and legal creditors.

Gholamhossein Shafei, chairman of Iran's Chamber of Commerce, Industries, and Mines said on Jan. 5 that according to the General Inspectorate Organization, just 5 percent of the shares have been really transferred to the private sector.

The privatization process has been implemented contrary to objectives of the Article 44 of the Constitution, he added.

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