The head of Iran's Privatization Organization, Mr. Gholamreza Heidari Kord Zangeneh, has announced that Iran will allow foreign companies and nationals to purchase stakes of up to 100 percent in Iranian industrial enterprises which are currently on sale under the national privatization plan.
This move is designed to attract new foreign investments into the country by canceling discrimination between domestic and foreign ownership. However, Iran is to include a provision regarding foreign ownership, under which combined foreign ownership in any given industry will not exceed 35 percent.
In addition, foreign investors will also be able to transfer their annual profits from their Iranian company out of the country in any currency without time restriction, and they will be able to do likewise with their original capital upon the expiration of a three-year period following the purchase of Iranian firms.
At the end of 2006, the Iranian authorities decided to privatize 70 big state-owned companies. The privatization plan includes domestic steel producers Mobarakeh Steel Co., Esfahan Steel Co. and Khuzestan Steel Company.