Iran, Italy to sign major credit deal

Italy says it will sign a basic agreement to provide as much as €5 billion to Iran to help press ahead the country’s development projects.

The agreement – which could be signed between the two countries on Thursday – would be meant to enable Italian companies to invest in Iran, Reuters quoted an unnamed official at Italy’s Treasury as saying. 

The accord foresees the opening of lines of credit to two Iranian banks by Invitalia, an Italian state-owned holding, in order to finance investment projects by Italian companies, the source said.

This follows several similar moves that were taken earlier. The latest involved an agreement between four Iranian banks and the Eximbank of Russia to provide “unlimited funds” for development projects to be carried out by domestic and international contractors in the Islamic Republic. 

In late September, Austria’s Oberbank signed a major finance deal with over a dozen Iranian banks based on which it would provide €1 billion in credits to the country’s companies that invest in the Iranian economy.

Oberbank’s initiative – that was seen in Tehran as the first of its kind in many years – was followed on the same day by a similar agreement between Denmark’s Danske Bank and several Iranian banks.

Accordingly, Danske Bank would allocate a credit line of €500 million for investments by Danish businesses in Iran.  

On a related front, France’s state investment bank Bpifrance (BPI) announced also in September that it planned to provide funds to French companies that invest in the Iranian economy from next year.

BPI France CEO Nicolas Dufourcq was quoted by media as telling reporters that his bank would grant up to €500 million ($598 million) in annual credits to companies that venture into the Iranian market.