Despite previous announcements that the two major state-owned football clubs, Persepolis and Esteghlal, would be priced and be ready for auction by the end of the third quarter of the year, the ambiguities in debts have hindered the price-setting process, said Abdollah Pouri-Hosseini, the director of Iranian Privatization Organization (IPO).
After calls made by the Rouhani administration to privatize the two popular clubs, a special committee was formed to facilitate the process. But the clubs’ massive overdue debts accumulated from the previous years have so far hampered the privatization process and the boards of directors at the clubs refrain from signing the financial statements.
Pouri-Hosseini added that the IPO values the stocks based on the debts, assets, and financial statements, emphasizing that the issue of overdue debts “is not a big deal” for the Reds (Persepolis) and the Blues (Esteghlal). The IPO chief also pledged the auction and transferring the shares to the private sector would be done on schedule.
During a recent meeting at the IPO, the preconditions for the transfers were discussed and decided and the base prices would be set in the next meeting. The officials at the meeting didn’t mention when the next meeting would be held.
The IPO also announced that the auctions to transfer the stocks of three government companies were conducted on Tuesday. According to the report released by the IPO’s public relations office, 80% of shares of Palayesh Pars Farayand, 48.27% of shares for Zohreh Tile Company, as well as 10% of shares for Boroujen Petrochemical Company would be transferred to the buyers offering the highest bids. The highest bids suggested for the three companies were announced to be 306.34 billion rials for 8,000 shares, 42.03 billion rials for 59.37 million shares, and 60.05 billion rials for 50 million shares, respectively.
