TEHRAN – The members of the Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (ICCIMA) Investment and Financing Committee met on Monday to discuss ways that Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) can benefit from stock market financing methods.

As reported by the ICCIMA portal, in this meeting the attendees stressed that SMEs can use the new capacities of the capital market to provide financial resources for their projects, which, of course, requires transparency and familiarity with new methods of financing.

During the meeting which was attended by Head of the Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE) Mohammad Goudarzi, the official said: “Tehran Stock Exchange has created a new opportunity for any company that makes more than 100 billion tomans (1.0 trillion rials or about $2.0 million) to enter the stock exchange. With this situation, small and medium-sized companies with a capital of over 120 billion tomans (1.2 trillion rials or about $2.4 million) can enter the capital market and be financed through it.”

Mentioning some of the financing tools that the stock market is providing, Goudarzi said: “One of the financing tools is financing through publishing the shares of a project. The problem with this method, however, is that provincial chambers of the ICCIMA do not have a coherent database. Meaning that it is not clear how much working capital a company has; What companies and what size are active in the chambers of commerce? Which company has the standard for using the capital market resources?”

“We do our best to attract companies into the capital market. If a small business has problems regarding financing through the capital market, it can refer to the Tehran Stock Exchange and the Securities Secretariat. Any company with a profit of over 100 billion tomans per year can use these capacities,” he added.

According to the official, the companies that use the stock market resources to finance their projects will be exempt from paying tax.

EF/MA

Photo: TSE Head Mohammad Goudarzi (2nd Left)