– Today a new piece of corporate Sukuk is to going to be underwritten on Iran Fara Bourse. The new Ijarah Sukuk securities will be issued by Saba Naft construction and engineering Co and have a nominal yield of 15%. With a maturity of 48 months and coupon frequency of 3 times per year (quarterly), SN1Q1 securities worth IRR 920 bn (cUSD 21.9 mn).
– A banking official stated that charging higher fees on banking services (mostly transactions of POS, etc.) can lead to lowering interest rates on granted facilities; in fact, he said that in case this process continues for 3 years, the interest rate might come down to 14% and the rate on facilities would also reduce to below 10% in Iranian banking sector. The current imbalanced situation for on-account risk-free deposit rate (20%) and banking facilities (around 28%) led most banks to their incompetence.
– The Securities and Exchange Organization (SEO) of Iran’s Issuers Supervision Division released the free float index of listed companies on the Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE) and Iran Fara Bourse (IFB) for the one-year period ended March 20th. Over the said period, 7 new companies entered Iran Stock Exchange, including HiWeb, Omid Investment Bank and Shafa Pharmaceutical with their free float rates standing at 6.4%, 3.58% and 0.59%; this event, however, could not exert any significant effect on the total free float index and its average remained in the 20% area. The following table shows the highest and lowest ratios among the first 10 listed companies:
– Aiming at improving their financial status by getting rid of their excess assets and cutting their costs, the Central Bank of Iran’s latest report proves a 0.3% decline in Iranian banks’ branches (to stand at 20,723) at the end of previous year (March 21st) in comparison with the prior year.
– The Majlis approved an amendment on the General Policies Pertaining to Principle 44 of the Constitution on Wednesday, based on which, Iranian banks & credit institutes, including state and non-governmental banks, established both before and after this law, or state banks whose shares are divested, are only allowed to operate in the form of public joint companies and public joint corporations and up to 10% of their shares can be freely purchased by their owners without needing any permission. Furthermore, the acquisition of shares between 10-20% and 20-33% by the owner is only allowed by the CBI based on the instruction proposed by the CBI and approved by the Money and Credit Council. In addition, the acquisition of other credit institutes’ shares by the owner, who is already in possession of more than 10% of one credit institute, is only possible after the CBI permission.
– After the other day’s news on USD/IRR Unification, the Central Bank of Iran changed the scheme of Iranian gold coin pre-sales. Following the administration’s decision to return stability to currency and gold markets, CBI’s chair announced that the pre-sale of “Bahar Azadi” coins shall be in line with the following table:
– Following the USD/IRR sudden jump surpassing the IRR 50,000 threshold, members of Iranian parliament criticized Iran Central Bank’s performance in managing the fluctuations and started to prepare a solution to establish calmness in the market. To this end, a meeting is planned between CBI officials and the Majlis Economic Commission members; in case the meeting fails to reach an agreement, the parliament commission will resort to a double-urgency motion to restore stability in the forex market later on. Nevertheless, the minister of economic affairs and finance has assured that such volatility is temporary and economic conditions will get back to normal soon.
– As a part of President Rouhani’s transportation fleet renewal plan to reduce air pollution and fuel consumption, Iran’s truck fleet is to be renewed, which can pave grounds for resuming correspondent banking relations between Iran and Sweden. As estimated, this plan provides an investment opportunity worth EUR 5 mn, that in case financed by the Swedish party, might go beyond a mere business collaboration. In this regard, a Swedish delegation, made up of practitioners in financial services, insurance, banking, etc. fields, is also planned to pay a visit to the country on April 18th, to sit with members of Tehran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture.
Tehran Stock Exchange went up by 342 points mostly influenced by mega-cap names like Esfahan’s Mobarake Steel and also thanks to better than expected Q2 performances of Metal producers. However, the value of trades in both the TSE and IFB was light ahead of the upcoming holidays.
– Treasury Department of Iranian government announced the issuance of Sukuk Musharaka (on Iran Debt Market) worth IRR 2,000 bn (cUSD 42.03 mn) capitalizing the fast tracks (high-speed train) between Tehran, Qom and Isfahan provinces. These securities will be issued with a nominal yield of 20%, a maturity of 4 years and semi-annual coupon payments. The below table shows the latest status of Iranian debt market as of March 28, 2018.