Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 15
By Fatih Karimov – Trend:
Iran’s Privatization Organization (IPO) has withdrawn from canceling a deal on selling the country’s Telecommunications Company to an IRGC-affiliated company Tose'e Etemad Mobin.
The IPO in a statement published on the official website of the organization Jan. 15 announced that Tose'e Etemad Mobin, has settled all of its debts, so the contract on selling stake of the Telecommunications Company to Tose'e Etemad Mobin remains on place.
The IPO announced in mid-December that the contract has been terminated because Tose'e Etemad Mobin, a consortium controlled by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, has failed so far to pay billions rials of the deal’s installments during seven years, since the contract was originally signed.
The IRGC-linked consortium bought 51 percent share of Iran's Telecommunications Company in Oct. 2009, during the biggest deal on Iran's Stock Exchange.
It was claimed that a rival enterprise had been unfairly excluded from the bidding process because it lacked appropriate "security qualifications."
The telecoms takeover at that time provoked accusations that the government's privatization program is a sham designed to sell state assets to the Revolutionary Guards.
Critics warned that purchase will allow increased monitoring of then President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's opponents.