TEHRAN- Managing Director of Iranian Privatization Organization (IPO) Abdollah Pouri-Hosseini told IRNA on Tuesday that 250 to 300 state-run companies will be transferred to the private sector by the end of the present Iranian calendar year (March 20, 2017).

The planned privatizations will be carried out via putting the companies’ shares on auction, Pouri-Hosseini said on the sidelines of the 3rd Kish International Exhibition of Exchange, Banking, Insurance and Privatization and the 8th International Exhibition for Presenting Iran’s Investment Opportunities (Kish INVEX 2016) held on Iran’s southern Kish Island. 
“Some 120 companies have been put on auctions since the beginning of the current year,” he added. 
Since its establishment, i.e., during the past 15 years, IPO has sold shares of 1,111 government companies to the private sector, the organization’s head previously announced.
IPO transferred 5.760 trillion rials (about $162.34 million) worth of Iranian state-run shares to the private sector from the beginning of the present Iranian calendar year (March 20, 216) to September 13, Tasnim news agency reported. 

HJ/MA