Page 47 - bne IntelliNews Country Report: Iran Dec17

Airbus-invested French-Italian joint venture - at Mehrabad International Airport in central Tehran. IranAir has in all ordered 20 ATR planes to serve Iran’s smaller cities, plus 100 larger airliners from Airbus. However, given continuing frictions between Tehran and Washington, doubts still remain over whether US manufacturer Boeing can deliver on plans to supply IranAir with 80 aircraft over the next few years. In mid-August, Iran’s Deputy Transport Minister Asghar Fakhrieh Kashan said he was in negotiations with Airbus t o purchase 45 helicopters for medical use.
British Airways (BA) opened a new office in Tehran on September 15, a year after recommencing operations in Iran by introducing London-Tehran flights available six days a week, T asnim News Agency reported on September 16. The airline was present in Iran until US-led sanctions forced it to pull out in 2011, with its then subsidiary British Midland International (BMI) taking over remaining operations until it too pulled out a year later. That left IranAir as the only carrier connecting the Iranian and UK capitals. BA country manager for Iran, Robert Williams, said Iranian customers can choose flights from Tehran to 200 destinations under the British Airways network. The new BA office in Tehran allows Iranians to pay the airline in local currency. BA resumed its Iran link with great fanfare in 2016, with its CEO Alex Cruz flying into Tehran to officially inaugurate the fresh London-Tehran service. Several European airlines have restarted their Iran flights and operations since the nuclear deal came into effect in 2016 and curbed international sanctions. They include Air France KLM and Austrian Airlines.
French industrial company Alstom has agreed to invest €1.2bn in Iran’s Arak Pars Railway Wagon company, according to a report by Islamic Republic News Agency released on September 4. French companies have been at the forefront of investment in several Iranian industrial sectors since the nuclear deal came into effect in 2016, curbing international sanctions against Tehran. French companies are active in the gas, automotive and other consumer segments of Iran, to name some of the major targets, and French President Emmanuel Macron is spearheading EU resistance to Donald Trump’s designs on scrapping the nuclear agreement. Alstom has confirmed it will be the lead partner in the production of wagons in a joint venture which will build 1,000 metro and suburban rail carriages in Iran; however, the latest investment figure given for the project is €100mn less than the originally cited sum. It is thought that Alstom will have a 60% stake in the proposed joint venture.
9.2.4 TMT corporate news
South African GSM operator MTN said on October 31 that it has filed its plea in a longrunning litigation in which Turkey’s largest mobile company Turkcell is claiming damages against MTN as a result of it having acquired a 49% stake in Irancell which was awarded as the second GSM licence in Iran in November 2005. “Turkcell's claim is opportunistic, an abuse of the process of Court, baseless and without merit - we will not be bullied, harassed and oppressed in this matter and have every expectation that we will prevail,” MTN said in a statement, published on its website. “Turkcell was the author of its own misfortune in failing to obtain the licence in Iran,” it added. When it became clear that Turkcell was unwilling or unable to comply with a new legislative requirement that its shareholding in the licence be not greater than 49%, the Iranian authorities offered the opportunity to MTN, according to
47 IRAN Country Report November 2017 www.intellinews.com