Private investors gave a lukewarm response to the sale on Wednesday of a five percent stake in Iran's state-owned Bank Mellat, the first stage of a planned privatisation, news agencies reported. "As per the plan, five percent of Bank Mellat's shares were offered on the stock exchange," the state-owned IRNA news agency quoted Tehran Stock Exchange director Ali Sahrai as saying.
The sale of shares in Bank Mellat - one of three Iranian banks under US sanctions - is the first phase of a planned 80 percent divestment, the first privatisation of a state-owned bank in the Islamic republic.
"We are monitoring the trade and there is not much demand for them," a director of the bourse, Ali Sanginian, told Mehr news agency. IRNA said around 340 million shares in the country's second largest bank - just over half the total on offer - had been sold at a price of around 1,050 rials (10 cents) each in the first few hours of trading. According to stock exchange regulations, at least 390 million shares have to be purchased in order to consider the stake sale "valid", the report said.