The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps is selling its shares in two of Iran's major mobile network operators, Telecommunications Company of Iran and Mobile Telecommunications Company of Iran, according to a statement published in IRGC news outlet, Sepahnews.com.
Fifty-one percent of TCI were sold to IRGC’s Mobin Trust Consortium (the majority shareholder of the company) in 2009 at 78 trillion rials ($559.13 million), which was much lower than its real stock value. Twenty percent of the money was paid in cash and the rest was to be paid in 16 installments of 4.84 trillion rials ($34.69 million) every six months.
In January, Defense Minister Brigadier General Amir Hatami said IRGC and other branches of Iran’s armed forces have been instructed to sell off business holdings and commercial assets unrelated to their main function. Hatami added that the Leader of Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei had instructed all of Iran’s armed forces to either divest economic holdings on the country’s capital market or sell them to the private sector.
The IRGC has extensive economic holdings in Iran’s construction, energy, banking, insurance and telecommunications industries.
