Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 7
By Khalid Kazimov - Trend:
Since Article 44 of the Iranian constitution was issued in 2005, 1.326 quadrillion rials of government shares (3,420 rials making one USD) were sold to the private sector, of which 715.5 trillion rials - 54 percent of the total- was sold on Tehran Stock Exchange, Iran's Capital Market Information Center (SENA) said in its report on Feb. 7.
Article 44 of the Iranian constitution addresses privatization of the country's properties.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei demanded government officials in 2007 to speed up the implementation of the policies outlined in the article.
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 Article 44, hundreds of state-owned companies have been privatized.
The report said that since 2005 153,213 billion rials has been sold via Iran's Infrabourse (OTC), 455,229 billion rials by block offering bids, and 1,859 billion rials through negotiations, comprising 11.6, 34.3, and 0.1 percent of the total number, respectively.
The report adds that in ten months of the current Iranian year (starting Mar. 21 2014) 38,048 billion rials of governmental shares have been sold to the private sector.
Some 450 billion rials of this amount was sold on stock market, 26,854 billion rials on Infrabourse, 1 billion rials via negotiations, and 743 billion rials by block offering bids.