The Iranian Privatization Organization has sold stocks worth 1.69 trillion rials ($47.4 million at market exchange rate) in government-owned companies five and a half months into the current Iranian fiscal year (started March 20). IPO sold most of the shares on Tehran Stock Exchange, Securities and Exchange News Agency reported. Only 64 billion rials of the shares in government companies were sold on the Iran Fara Bourse over-the-counter market while 14 billion rials worth of shares were sold through tenders. Nearly all the shares, worth 1.55 trillion rials, were sold in large chunks to institutional investors, through block offering. IPO was formed to sell the Iranian government’s vast industrial holdings, after a new interpretation of Article 44 of the Iranian Constitution was put forth by the Leader of Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei in 2006.
