The PR department of IPO (via ISNA) - referring to the offering of shares of state-owned companies on the stock exchange, Dr. Alireza Saleh said in a TV interview: “One fund will be offered on the 14th of Ordibehesht and two more funds will be offered in the future. In the first offer, each person is given a 20 to 30 percent discount, but this discount cannot be used for the same person in other funds.”

Asked if the government could increase the stock prices of the companies it wants to supply, he said: “The government is the offeror and if it increases the sales queue, the prices will go down. In other words, buying is forbidden for the government, so how can it raise prices?”

Details of the first ETF fund

Head of IPO, referring to the offering of shares of the Financial Intermediation Fund as the first fund, said: “The government has allocated the best shares for this fund. The fund includes shares of Bank Saderat Iran, Tejarat Bank, Bank Mellat, Alborz Insurance Company, and Amin Reinsurance Company, which includes a seat in the board of directors.”

Saleh emphasized that the government's goal is not only financial and that it could offer the same shares in blocks and at higher prices, and said:  the fund will offer a discount of about 15,000 billion tomans. To observe social justice, we did not make the announcement on the night of the offering, but we announced the conditions one week before the offering and we will give people time from the day of acceptance, which is the 14th of Ordibehesht, until the 31st of Ordibehesht.

Possibility of participation with stock exchange code and national code

He went on to explain the underwriting process for thee ETFs: “People who have a stock exchange code can apply through brokerages and banks, and people who don't have a stock exchange code can participate using minimal information including name, national code, postal code, and mobile number through in-person and remote portals of all banks.”

According to the IPO head, the deposit can be made by the head of the household for all family members, but if each person is to be given two million shares, each national code can receive this share separately.

Saleh continued that when an investment fund wants to be established on the stock exchange, its statue and vision statement should be published in Codal system and added: “accordingly, the statute and the vision statement of the Financial Intermediation Fund have been published in the Codal system and after the day that the statue is published, no one can change it.”

Fund management is up to the government until the (Iranian) year 1400

Emphasizing that the government's management power over the fund is by the end of the year 1400 maximumly, he said: “From 1400 onwards, the government will have no management rights and a tenth of a percent of the shareholders who bought a company's share will replace the government.”

The Director-General of IPO continued: “In this regard, I hope that by the year 1400, the electronic assembly or electronic voting will be launched by the stock exchange.”

Saleh advised people to read the Fund's statue and vision statement to find out that the Fund's management is not active and that the manager cannot buy and sell the bank's shares and can only pay dividends and act as a market maker.

Details of three ETF funds

He went on to explain that the government intends to offer its shares in state-owned companies in the form of two groups and said: “The first group includes companies currently listed on the stock exchange, which includes three funds, namely the Financial Intermediation Fund, and refining fund (which includes four refineries with a value of about 22 thousand billion tomans) and the metal and automotive industries fund.”

The IPO head said: “Some companies are also parent companies, such as IMIDRO and IDRO Group, which we offer as a whole in the form of a holding company or an investment company in the stock exchange. It should be noted that the stock market has standards and a company cannot enter if it does not comply with them, and our goal is that there is no undisclosed information in the financial statements of the companies whose shares we offer. In the next six months, we will offer at least two or three holdings worth 80,000 billion tomans.”