TEHRAN - Head of Securities and Exchange Organization (SEO) Majid Eshqi has said 25 new major companies are ready to offer their shares at the country’s stock exchange.

“Many initial public offerings (IPOs) are going to be made in the near future, and now about 25 companies are ready to enter the market,” Eshqi told IRNA on Sunday.

“Over the last six months, we have been preparing initial offerings in accordance with market conditions and the balanced entry of liquidity into the market. Currently, Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE) and Iran Fara Bourse (IFB) officials and experts have made the necessary plans so that the initial public offerings can be made in accordance with the best conditions for capital to enter the market,” he explained.

According to the official, the initial offerings will start in the current Iranian calendar week (ends on Friday) and will continue in accordance with the market conditions.

Eshqi further mentioned some of his organization’s programs for ensuring positive growth in the market, saying: “SEO’s programs for this year include intelligent and electronic monitoring of the market. In this regard, we will strengthen the capital market monitoring center, which was launched in March, so that there is no violation in the market trading process. We will identify violations quickly.”

Another program is to monitor financial institutions like brokerage firms, portfolio companies, and investment funds to ensure that they perform in accordance with the rules and regulations of the market, the SEO head added.

“These two measures are among the main programs of the Securities and Exchange Organization and to realize them, it is necessary to take serious measures to improve IT infrastructure, and to amend capital market regulations and laws or even apply new regulations,” he said.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Eshqi mentioned SEO’s plans for increasing the capital market’s role in financing production units and projects, saying: “If we succeed to increase the capital market share in financing production units in the current [Iranian calendar] year (started on March 21), we have done a great job, it seems that this potential exists in the market and we will see it realized by the end of the year.”

According to Eshqi, last year, due to capital increases from various sources, such as the issuance of bonds, the capital market only accounted for 25 percent of the mentioned fundings, but SEO plans to increase this figure as much as possible in the current year.

EF/MA