Tehran Court Orders Government to Pay 138 Trillion Tomans Over Persian Gulf Holding Privatization Case

Branch 92 of Tehran's General Court, according to a Bourse News report on Saturday, 17 Mordad 1405 (8 August 2026), ordered Iran's Presidential Institution to pay 138 trillion tomans to Ahdaf Company, a subsidiary of the oil industry pension fund. The ruling revived the case around the government's sale of a 12 percent stake in Persian Gulf Petrochemical Holding in Aban 1401 (October/November 2022), a deal in which Ahdaf and Tehran Oil Refining Company competed through 270 price changes before the block sold at 1,851 tomans per share for a total value of about 108.7 trillion tomans.

Officials at the oil industry pension fund say the sale cost the fund more than 100 trillion tomans, partly because the Privatization Organization failed to honor its commitment to hand the buyer a board seat. Hossein Ghorbanzadeh, who headed the Privatization Organization at the time of the sale, has described the deal as the most competitive and transparent privatization in Iranian history.