Russian Billionaire Invests in Iran’s Firms: Report
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Billionaire entrepreneur Vladimir Potanin has become the first Russian investor to buy stakes in a number of Iranian companies after the removal of anti-Tehran sanctions, a report said.
Potanin through his Winter Capital Partners fund became a shareholder in a number of Iranian internet companies, including the country’s biggest web retailer – Digikala, RT reported on Wednesday.
Winter Capital Partners invested in Swedish-based Pomegranate Investment, whose main asset is a 9.6 percent stake in an Iran’s Sarava, which owns stakes in about a dozen local online companies and controls Digikala. Digikala controls 91 percent of the Iranian market and is known as the local Amazon.
According to the report, the transaction took place this March.
Winter Capital Partners was created by Potanin in 2015. The company has invested over $300 million, and its portfolio includes a pharmaceutical company that supplies flu vaccines.
International interest in ties with Iran has been growing since Tehran and the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany) on July 14, 2015 finalized a comprehensive nuclear deal and started implementing it on January 16.
The agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), terminated all nuclear-related sanctions imposed on Iran.
