Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov’s Renaissance Capital is interested in business in Iran and has already started scoping out opportunities in the country.
The top-ranked investment bank is evaluating equity trading, deals and analyst coverage for Iran and is informing clients for possible ventures.
Ben Samuels, global head of equities and interim head of research, described Iran as the “largest economy in the world that is currently closed to institutional investors."
The Moscow-based firm is trying to “identify potential investment opportunities in the Iranian market," Bloomberg cited him as saying.
RenCap, as the company is known, operates in high-opportunity emerging and frontier markets.
International money managers are preparing a major entry into the Tehran stock market as interest builds up in trade with Iran in anticipation of a nuclear deal.
According to the Western media, London-based Charlemagne Capital and First Frontier Capital would rather jump the gun than get lost in the rally that could allow Tehran's $110 billion equity market to take off.
They are putting together sanctions-compliant funds to allow investors to buy Iranian equities ahead of the interest that they expect a final agreement would generate, Bloomberg said.
Global economic analysts project that Iran's unfettered economy could grow 6-8% annually when the sanctions are totally voided.
Even with sanctions in place, the Tehran stock market gauge jumped 300% in dollar terms in the five years through 2013.
Iran’s main bourse, however, lost $3.5 billion in the month of Khordad that ended on June 21 as a lingering recession took its toll on major businesses, the daily Hamshahri reported on Tuesday.
Over 450 financial entities are listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange. Many others, including refineries, petrochemical plants and other big businesses, are waiting for initial public offering (IPO) as part of a massive privatization program.
Last month, a foreign delegation of asset managers, including Americans, visited Tehran Stock Exchange for the second time in as many weeks.
The group of 17 investment managers from Russia, Britain, Egypt, Greece, Switzerland, the US, Turkey, Italy and the UAE visited the bourse and held talks with its chief Hassan Qalibaf-Asl.