Date: 08 Mar 2000
Time: 07:41:47
Remote Name: 156.29.145.175
Tue Mar 7 14:55:45 2000
IRAN : Iran sells car maker in record $82 mln bourse deal.
03/07/2000 Reuters English News Service (C) Reuters Limited 2000.
TEHRAN, March 7 (Reuters) - Iran has sold off 85 percent of its third largest car maker, Pars Khodro, in a record $82 million deal aimed at consolidating the industry, officials and traders said on Tuesday.
Some 85 million shares of the state car manufacturer were sold on the Tehran Stock Exchange on Monday to state-run carmaker Saipa and an investment arm of Iran 's social security agency, senior bourse official Mojtaba Yousefpour told Reuters
Yousefpour said the deal, worth 675 billion rials ($82.8 million), was the bourse's biggest single deal ever.
He said Saipa bought a 51 percent stake and the investment body 34 percent. The shares were sold by the Industrial Development and Renovation Organisation, a state holding company, as part of the government's privatisation plans.
Some traders said brokers representing Italy's Fiat and an unnamed Indian firm had taken part unsuccessfully in the bidding, but the report could not be officially confirmed.
Traders said the deal was a step towards consolidating Iran 's automobile industry, dominated by Saipa and Iran Khodro which are both still state-run even though largely privatised.
Iranian officials had said earlier they were holding separate talks with Fiat and Germany's Volkswagen AG over investment in Pars Khodro.
Iran aims to double car production to 500,000 units by 2003 through increased private investment to meet local demand. Pars Khodro mostly makes Nissan off-road vehicles.
Saipa, the second largest carmaker, manufactures South Korean Kia Motor's Pride model and some Renault models. ($1=8,150 rials at the official rate set on the bourse).