Foreign Firms Visiting Iran

A high ranking delegation from French firms, coordinated by MEDEF International, the French Business Confederation, are visiting Tehran and Isfahan.

MEDEF International is created in 1989 by MEDEF, the French Business Confederation with 750,000 companies. MEDEF International is the most representative organisation of the French private sector at an international level. They attended a seminar at Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture, visited Tehran Stocks Exchange and will visit Isfahan.

More details follows from Tehran Times:

Jens Rönnberg, a senior partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers, visited Iran yesterday and attended a meeting with Iranian entrepreneurs and officials from banking, stock exchange, and international commerce sectors.

"We see a huge potential for our services here in Iran as well as for our multinational partners.", he said in an interview with Financial Tribune. "We have filed an application with OFAC and it's pending. ... Our competitors are already here and for OFAC denying us permission would be a competitive disadvantage," he said.

More details from Tehran Times here.

Renaissance Capital's Global Chief Economist Charles Robertson has visited Iran back in March 2014 and published an interesting report after his visit.

"The past 10 years have seen global investors reach into previously untapped markets, from local-currency corporate bonds in emerging markets to equities in frontier markets ... We believe Iran would represent the last such opportunity globally, in an investable scenario. No other country is as large or as untapped."

"Unlikely as it may sound, stock market capitalisation is roughly $170bn (similar to Poland) after a wide-ranging privatisation drive over the past decade. The free float on the main market is closer to $30bn, which is above the MSCI free floats of Kuwait and Nigeria. This would make it equivalent to roughly 25% of the MSCI frontier index if all companies qualified for inclusion. On the local exchange's data, daily trading volumes are around $150mn. This compares with $26mn in Nigeria in 2013. There are no Iranian barriers to foreigners investing in the market: foreign brands from Coca-Cola to Danone are in the country."

If you need to see case studies of foreign companies already active in Iran, check our Directory of Foreign Companies in Iran.

American venture capitalist and tech entrepreneur Christopher Schroeder has been visiting Iran in the past year and has been publishing fantastic reports about his visits.

Back in May 2014 he writes a report in Harvard Business Review titled "What It's Like Being a Business Traveler in Iran":

"We almost immediately learned that Iran is an astoundingly lovely place, with very little of the deep poverty one sees intertwined into the societies of most emerging markets ... We didn't see a fraction of the religious tension we expected. Everywhere we went, people came up to us even on the streets, tourist spots and restaurants to say hello, to thank us for being there, to express affection."

At the same time he writes a more tech-centric post for the tech website Pando. And a couple of weeks ago he writes a new piece in Politico. All of them are fantastic reads.

If you need to see case studies of foreign companies already active in Iran, check our Directory of Foreign Companies in Iran.

Jay Pelosky, a senior global macro strategist and principal of the advisory firm J2Z Advisory, has recently visited Iran and shared his views in this Financial Times article

"On the ground, Iran reminded one of earlier economic and market transitions such as Latin America at the turn of the 1990s or Russia and central Europe in the mid-1990s. ... However, Iran has some unique characteristics that suggest a nuclear deal could stimulate an accelerated transition", he writes in FT.

If you need to see case studies of foreign companies already active in Iran, check our Directory of Foreign Companies in Iran.

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Lebanese entrepreneur and angel investor Samer Karam recently visited Iran and signaled his interest in investment opportunities in the tech sector.

"Iran has the infrastructure, resources, talent, culture, and passion to become the leading startup ecosystem of all of the Caucasus, Arab World, and Central Asia. I will surely invest in Iran, and so should you." he said. He visited and had a presentation at AvaTech, a startup accelerator in Tehran.

If you need to see case studies of foreign companies already active in Iran, check our Directory of Foreign Companies in Iran.

Dubai Chamber of Commerce had a high-level delegation visit to Iran and experienced a front page feature on some Iranian magazines!

Abdul Rahman Saif al-Aziz, Chairman of Dubai Chamber of Commerce said there exist huge potentials to broaden economic relations and cooperation between the two countries. (Referring to high number of Iranian businessmen and tourists in the UAE and mainly in Dubai, he called for removal of barriers to help broaden volume of trade between the two countries as well as easing of trade tariffs).

More details follows from IRNA official news agency.

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