Isfahan City’s Municipality has issued the second batch of its participation bonds worth a total of 5 trillion rials ($119 million) for financing the construction of the city’s Subway Line-2, Isfahan Mayor Qodratollah Norouzi announced. The four-year bonds bear 20% interest, and the government is set to undertake 50% of the buyback and yield payment to expand public transportation. “Isfahan is a tourist city and its traffic and pollution problems must be overcome. This requires financing the expansion of public transportation,” Norouzi said, adding that they are also mulling financing other public projects via the debt market, Bourse Press reported. The municipality issued the first batch in the dying days of the last fiscal year (March 2017-18) on Tehran Stock Exchange. “It was not a good time for issuing the bonds, although a limited number were sold and we set a future date for issuing the rest,” said Nader Akhoundi, the municipality’s finance manager, in March.
