Japan’s NRI to Help Manage State Assets

Nomura Research Institute, a Japanese firm that provides asset management consulting and finance solutions, is interested in identifying Iran’s potential assets and helping efficiently utilize them.

According to an official at Qeshm Free Trade Zone, Nomura Research Institute officially started cooperating in Qeshm FTZ Organization’s projects since January 2017 and has announced that it is willing to extend its operations across the country.

“The cooperation of Japan’s NRI is aimed at identifying, managing and utilizing the country’s potential assets,” Farhad Taqizadeh Hesari was also quoted as saying by Qeshm FTZ Organization’s official news outlet, News.Qeshm.ir.

Facing the prospect of a shortage of assets and a gaping budget, the Iranian government, in partnership with other entities, is also trying to identify public sector assets.

In line with the efforts, the Iranian government organized a conference on managing public sector assets and increasing their productivity in Tehran, which was attended by Minister of Economic Affairs and Finance Masoud Karbasian and other high-level ministry officials as well as representatives of the judiciary and key lawmakers.

Karbasian, who delivered the keynote speech, stressed that the first step in managing public sector assets is to identify all of them, a goal seriously pursued during the first tenure of President Hassan Rouhani (started in 2013).

Taqizadeh, who is also an economist with Asian Development Bank, noted that the CEO of NRI has announced its readiness to extend its activities in Iran at a meeting hosted by Iran’s ambassador to Japan about a week ago in Tokyo.

“Different sectors of Iran’s economy have a great volume of potential assets, which are mostly unidentified and unevaluated,” he added, noting that these precious assets, when identified and utilized, can be used as efficient tools to attract foreign investments and finances.

This is while Mohammad Reza Pour-Ebrahimi, the head of Majlis Economic Commission, opined that a significant number of government woes directly and indirectly relate to a lack of management in public sector assets and pledged his support to address the problems.

However, NRI is not the first asset management firm to enter Iran. About two weeks ago, Italy’s Azimut Group signed an agreement to acquire a 20% stake in Mofid Entekhab, an Iranian asset management company.

Azimut, an Italian independent asset manager active since 1989 with offices in Italy, Luxembourg, Ireland, China (Hong Kong and Shanghai), Monaco, Switzerland, Taiwan, Brazil, Singapore, Mexico, Australia, Chile, the US, the UAE and Turkey, is the first global financial institution entering with an equity investment in a company providing financial services licensed by the Iranian regulator, Securities and Exchange Organization.