Iran divests shares in largest petrochemical company
The Iranian government has sold 12% of its shares in the country’s largest petrochemical company the PGPIC for nearly $3.3 billion.
Reports published in the local media on Monday suggested that the government had divested 587,400,000 of its shares in the Persian Gulf Petrochemical Industries (PGPIC) for a final price of 18,510 rials ($0.056) per share.
The Ahdaf Investment Company, a subsidiary of Iran’s Oil Pension Fund, bought the entire block of shares after a tight race with Tehran Oil Refinery.
On Saturday, the PGPIC had listed the block of shares for an initial price of 820 trillion rials.
“Moments ago, the stocks of this company was sold for a total price of 1,087 trillion rials. It was the largest privatization scheme in the country’s history,” Hossein Ghorbanzade, who leads Iran’s Privatization Organization, was quoted as saying by the official ISNA news agency.
The PGPIC is one of the largest petrochemical companies in the world and the second largest in the Middle East after Saudi Arabia’s SABIC
The divestment of government shares in the company comes amid efforts to boost competitiveness in the local manufacturing market.
The divestment can also shore up government finances at a time of increased economic pressure on the country because of American sanctions.
The Iranian government had announced in December last year that it plans to sell all of its stake in the PGPIC, which amounts to 18% of the total shares in the company, in three separate listings in the local stock market.
However, a statement in January this year indicated that officials were not happy with a price of 570 trillion rials offered by a single bidder for the entire shares.
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