Social Security Investment Company, known by its Persian acronym Shasta, plans to invest 4,000 trillion rials ($15.3 billion) in projects of its subsidiaries, the company’s managing director said.
“The investment will be made over four years to [help] raise production of Shasta subsidiaries,” Ali Rostami told a press conference on Tuesday, IRNA reported.
“Presently, there are 94 projects underway worth 630 trillion rials [$2.4b] funded by Shasta,” Rostami added.
Shasta is the largest holding multidisciplinary company in Iran. The conglomerate is the investment arm of the Social Security Organization (SSO), Iran’s largest pension fund and biggest insurance company that provides services to wage-earners and the self-employed.
The company controls nine holdings operating across a wide range of sectors, including petroleum, petrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, cement, transportation, telecom, shipping and finance. These in turn manage 187subsidiaries.
To improve the productivity of the subsidiaries, Rostami said there are plans to dissolve 24 dysfunctional companies and merge 19 small companies with the big names.
He said the capital of the holding increased ten-fold this year to 1,630 trillion rials ($6.2 billion) with net assets exceeding 2,500 trillion rials ($9.6 billion).
He spoke about plans to list 24 subsidiaries in the bourse. “At present, 14 companies are in the process of listing and in talks the Securities and Exchange Organization”.
In recent years the SSO has been forced to sell some of its assets to remain afloat and pay the army of retirees whose numbers grow on a regular basis.
In April 2020, Shasta sold 10% of its stakes via IPOS worth 69 trillion rials ($265 million).
