The Tap30 company, one of the main ride-hailing companies in Iran, offered 5% of its shares on Tuesday. It offered 1.17 billion shares each at 9,400 rials. The IPO was billed at 11 trillion rials ($34 million).
The company made its debut on Iran Fara Bourse, the junior equities market in Tehran, and only “eligible investors” were allowed to partake in the primary offering, namely exchange-traded funds (ETFs), mutual funds and asset managers.
As per rules set in Sept. 2021, the Securities and Exchange Organization allows only “professional investors” to participate in IPOs of “risky” and small-size companies.
The startup company has said it plans to sell a bigger portion of it shares in the form of share premium to boost the capital of the company.
Share premium is the difference in price between the par value, or face value of shares, and the total price a company receives for recently-issued shares. Share premium is the additional paid-in capital in excess of par value that an investor pays.
The new listing attracted attention in that it was the first ever startup company to go public. A number of government officials attended the IPO ceremony.
Ehsan Khandouzi, the economy minister, described the move as a turning point in the economy. “We are at a point where knowledge-based industries have matured and funding methods must be used to support them,” he was quoted as saying by the IFB website.
In the same vein, the ICT Minister Isa Zere’pour said Tap30 took an arduous path to the stock market but has paved the way for other startups to follow suit.
Majid Eshqi, managing director of the SEO, described the listing as “a big event” and “the creation of a path” to finance the knowledge-based economy via the capital market.
Startups have faced major hurdles in their plans to list at the stock exchange because inherently they have different property and financial structures from that of other trade and manufacturing companies.
One key problem is the fact that their assets cannot be identified and assessed precisely. Unlike other listed companies that own tangible assets, startups are largely intellectual property and brand names, which apparently cannot be easily assessed under normal valuation procedures.
However, that seems to be changing and startups are gradually overcoming the lawful and other hurdles.
Briefing reporters about the company’s financial performance last week, Milad Monshipour ,the Tap30 boss, said the internet-based startup earns an estimated 360 billion rials a month and its operating income reached 2.66 trillion rials ($8.3 million) in the last fiscal year that ended in March
The source of its income is the 15% commission on taxi fare passengers pay to drivers. Tap30 offers services in 13 provinces across the country.
