Iranian Military Cancels Marketplace Divar's IPO Application at Short Notice

Iranian horizontal marketplace Divar's IPO application has been halted after the intelligence segment of a branch of the Iranian military stepped in.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) has become a major intelligence apparatus of the Islamic Republic, and the Tehran stock exchange cancelled a meeting about Divar's proposal at short notice at its bidding, with the Intelligence Organization of IRGC saying Divar did not gain sufficient approvals to pursue flotation.

However, Divar has argued that the business has been involved in several similar meetings in previous months, approved by Iran's Ministry of Intelligence.

Ashka Armandehi, CEO at Divar, released a statement saying:

According to the announcement of the stock exchange company officials, this decision was made because the IRGC Intelligence did not give a clear response to issue the necessary approvals, and the acceptance meeting for the wall was canceled for this reason.

This is despite the fact that numerous negotiations and meetings were held in this regard in recent months, and no official and clear opposition was announced to us in this regard, and the Ministry of Intelligence also announced its approval to the stock exchange.

Accordingly, if a response is not received from the security agency within the stipulated deadline regarding the company that has applied for admission, the stock exchange company can continue the admission process and hold the necessary meetings. Today's meeting for Divar's admission to the stock exchange was also coordinated on this basis, but in the end, this meeting was canceled today and at the last moment, for the same usual and recurring reason, namely the opposition of the security agencies.

Armandehi went on to say that, by cancelling the meeting, the IRGC had gone against Iran's Ministry of Intelligence which had already announced its approval.

Divar's bad luck dates back to 2023, as one of several apps that were removed from the Google Play store as part of American sanctions against Iran.

The only other marketplace that tried to float in Iran, Sheypoor, failed to go public after its attempt fell through.