Iran Plans $250 Million Local Bond Issue This Year
- Central Bank
August 8, 2000, TEHRAN -(Dow Jones)- The Central Bank of Iran is planning
to issue $250 million of bonds to domestic investors by the end of the
current fiscal year, in March 2001, a CBI official said Monday.
In an interview with Iran's Central News Bureau, Ali-Asghar Sadeghi,
head of bonds at the CBI, said about $825 million in participation bonds
have been issued in the past three years, of which 98% have been bought
by investors.
The first tranche of the new issue, for about $90 million, will be marketed
by seven banks throughout Iran for a period of 10 days beginning this week,
Sadeghi said. In total three tranches are planned. He added that the bonds
offer a number of advantages such as transfer of ownership, exemption from
tax, an initial interest rate of 19% and repurchase by all agent banks.
Earlier this year, the CBI governor said Iran planned to issue about
$550 million of Eurobonds via a number of European commercial banks.
The local bond issues, coupled with high tax rates in Iran, have severely
drained liquidity in the country and both the government and the CBI have
come under criticism for intensifying the recession.
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