Listed government-controlled companies will pay 290 trillion rials ($1.1 billion) in dividends to shareholders of the so-called Justice Shares before the yearend on March 20, said a board member of the Securities and Exchange Organization.
Mahmoud Goudarzi said the dividends will go to an estimated 49 million Iranians who own such shares, Fars news agency reported at the weekend.
Justice Shares are shares of major government-owned companies that were given to the six lowest income deciles almost 15 years ago and were not tradable until April 2020.
Justice Share portfolio includes 49 state-owned companies in the auto, metal, mining, agro, petrochemical and banking sectors. So far 35 of the companies are listed in the bourse and 14 others are planning IPOs.
Stocks in the portfolio belongs to blue chips and profitable companies, among them the Persian Gulf Petrochemical Industries Corporation, MAPNA industrial group, Mobarakeh Steel Company and other big names in petrochemical, refinery, mining and banking industry.
The dividend this time has increased significantly thanks to the improvement in the financial performance of the companies.
According to Goudarzi, the dividend this year is three times higher than the 90 trillion rials ($346 million) paid last year.
He expressed the hope that Central Securities Depository of Iran, the country’s capital market clearing house, will deposit the money in a week.
Shares of the firms were first offered in 2007, when former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad decided to speed up his privatization policy by offering shares to low-income households, starting with those at the lowest end of the economic ladder.
Now almost 50 million people own the shares and the government has said it will give Justice Shares to new eligible groups and those who did not receive it in 2007.
