The Iranian Privatization Organization extended the subscription timeline for units of an exchange-traded fund that holds government shares in four refineries.
In a press release published on its website, the IPO said it has extend the date to Sept 20. The subscription started on August 26.
This is the second time the IPO is extending the subscription date. Last week it had moved the deadline for a week.
The ETF, dubbed “First Refinery”, holds government shares in four major oil refineries, namely Tehran Oil Refining Company, Esfahan Oil Refining Company, Tabriz Oil Refining Company and Bandar Abbas Oil Refining Company. The government owns 20% of shares in each refinery, which is estimated to worth 600 trillion rials ($2.4 billion).
The ETF units have so far not attracted much investor interest amid uncertainty in market trends. Investors argue they do not have a clear assessment of the ETF return as shares in many listed companies, including the refinery shares, crashed in two months of bear market.
The market regulator move to suspend the ticker symbols of the four refineries in the ETF has added to the uncertainty. For two weeks the stock market regulator has temporarily suspended the ticker symbols of several large-cap firms to stop further collapse of the stock market.
The new ETF is the second of its kind. In May the government sold shares in three banks and two insurance companies via the first ETF. It held 17% of government stakes in Tejarat Bank, 17% in Bank Mellat, 18.32% in Bank Saderat Iran, 17.34% in Alborz Insurance Company and 11.44% in Amin Reinsurance Company. At the time the government made 58.86 trillion rials ($234 million).
Selling shares via ETFs is part of the government’s effort to raise funds for budgetary needs. Officials says the scheme also provides investment opportunity to large numbers of people with small savings.
