On Tuesday, 4 August 2026 (13 Mordad 1405), the Tehran Stock Exchange board was blank: Iran's domestic markets were closed for Arbaeen, and the last trading session dated back to Monday, 3 August. Yet in that same quiet stretch, three notices were published, all of them about ownership changing hands at listed companies, and none of them passing through the retail board: 6.97 percent, 16.34 percent and 65.05 percent of three companies' shares are being offered "in bulk" (عرضه عمده), each on a set date.
A shareholder who watches the volume and price columns every day will see none of these three trades there. Typically they find out only when the list of major shareholders has changed in the company's next report. This piece explains what the mechanism is, how its price is set, and why seeing a block offering notice is, on its own, neither good news nor bad news.
Background: why the large parcel was separated from the retail board
The daily board is built for retail trading: many small orders, inside a limited price band, with price and time priority. If a shareholder wants to hand over a large parcel of a company's shares in one go, that structure does not work. Selling such a parcel gradually on the board takes weeks, breaks the price on the way down, and gives the buyer no assurance of ending up with the size they wanted.
The answer is to separate this kind of transfer from the retail board. The large parcel is put up for competitive bidding through a distinct mechanism, with its own pricing and timing rules. The result is that a meaningful share of all ownership transfer in Iran's capital market never appears in the day's retail trading statistics at all. This is where the difference between "ownership" and "price" shows itself: the board discovers the price, but the ownership structure changes somewhere else.
Block offering and block trade: where the difference lies
The two terms are often used interchangeably. They are not the same thing.
A block offering (عرضه عمده) is a pre announced event. The exchange or the over the counter market (Iran Fara Bourse) publishes a notice stating what percentage of which company's shares will go to competitive bidding, on what date, and at what base price. The date and terms are public in advance, and the bidding is held in a session separate from the retail board.
A block trade (معامله بلوکی) refers to the manner of execution: transferring a large parcel of shares outside the retail order mechanism of the board. Every block offering is ultimately settled as a block transfer, but not every block transfer emerges from a publicly pre announced auction.
The practical difference for a reader is simple: a block offering can be seen coming and planned for, because its date is announced. Do not confuse this with the role of a market maker, which operates on that same retail board and for day to day liquidity, not for ownership transfer.
Three offerings, three different degrees of ownership
The notices themselves put a key point in parentheses that usually falls out of the headlines: what exactly the parcel gives the buyer. The three recent notices are three distinct rungs of that same ladder.
| Company (symbol) | Percentage offered | Type of parcel | Market | Offering date |
|---|
| Pars Paper Industries Group (Chekapa) | 6.97 percent | Bulk, non-managerial | Tehran Stock Exchange | Sunday, 23 August 2026 |
| Noosh Mazandaran | 16.34 percent | Bulk, managerial non-controlling | Tehran Stock Exchange | Sunday, 16 August 2026 |
| Fars Trade Power Generation (Bomolled 4) | 65.05 percent (5,510,774,551 shares) | Bulk, controlling | Iran Fara Bourse, second market | Saturday, 15 August 2026 |
Source: notices from the Tehran Stock Exchange and the market operations management of Iran Fara Bourse; the Pars Paper notice was published on 2 August 2026 (11 Mordad 1405) and the Bomolled notice on 3 August 2026 (12 Mordad 1405).
The three labels in the "type of parcel" column are real distinctions, not administrative formalities:
- Non-managerial (Pars Paper, 6.97 percent): a parcel sold without a board seat attached. The buyer becomes a large shareholder, but running the company does not pass to them.
- Managerial non-controlling (Noosh Mazandaran, 16.34 percent): a parcel that makes a presence in the decision making bodies possible, without putting the final decision in the buyer's hands.
- Controlling (Bomolled, 65.05 percent): a parcel through which majority ownership, and in practice the direction of the company, changes hands.
That one word in parentheses is the whole difference between "a new shareholder arrived" and "the company changed owner".
The number nobody looks at: the base price
The most important number in a block offering is the base price, and that number is built from the board price without being equal to it. The Bomolled 4 notice spells out the formula: the total base price equals the number of shares on offer multiplied by the symbol's closing price on the day before the offering date or on the date the offering announcement was published, whichever is higher, plus 150 percent of that value.
In other words, the starting point for bidding on this controlling parcel is roughly 2.5 times the board value of the same number of shares. That extra 150 percent is the price of something the board does not sell: control. A retail shareholder buying one share pays the board price; whoever buys the majority of the company starts, in this offering, from a considerably higher point. The offering has also been announced as a cash sale.
Set that against one concrete figure: the last recorded price for Chekapa in Sahmino's system as of 13:20 on 4 August 2026 was 1,402 rials, up 40 rials (2.94 percent) from the prior reference; because the market was closed today, that figure dates back to the last session, Monday 3 August. You can follow the symbol's daily price on the Chekapa price page. This is exactly where the degree of the parcel matters: Pars Paper's non-managerial block does not carry the control premium that a majority parcel does.
Why these notices are neither a positive nor a negative signal
The temptation to resist is this: "a block offering was announced, so something is coming". The notice alone says no such thing. What creates meaning is two things, neither visible in the percentage offered: the identity of the buyer and the motive of the seller.
A public institution may be selling under a divestment obligation; a holding company may be exiting to raise liquidity; and the buyer may be a financial investor or a player from the same industry pursuing consolidation. These carry entirely different consequences for the company, and none of them can be guessed from the figures 6.97 or 65.05.
A practical rule: until the bidding has been held and the buyer's identity has been published in an official notice, any inference about either side's intent is speculation. What you hold is a date, a percentage and a degree of ownership. Those three are not nothing, but they are not more than that.
There is one side effect that gets less attention: moving a large block can affect a company's free float, and free float is the very variable that sets a symbol's weight in the indices.
How to follow these yourself
Tracking these cases needs no special tooling; two official routes are enough.
Exchange and Fara Bourse notices are the starting point: this is where the offering date, the size of the parcel, the degree of ownership and the pricing terms are announced. Mark the offering date in your own calendar; you can also follow dated market events in Sahmino's calendar.
Codal, the mandatory disclosure system, is where the effect is recorded: the official notice of the trade, and then the change in the list of major shareholders. To see what that change looks like in the company's later reports, our guide to reading Codal financial statements lays out the path.
Conclusion
In three days, three parcels of shares in three listed companies went up for competitive bidding, together larger than any ordinary board trade in those same symbols, and none of them will show up in retail trading statistics. What matters here is not the percentage; it is the word in parentheses: non-managerial, managerial non-controlling, controlling. And if only one number from this piece stays with you, make it the 150 percent: the premium the Bomolled notice places on the board value of the shares in order to put a price on control of the company. The board tells you the price of a share; the price of a company is set somewhere else.
What to watch
Three announced dates lie ahead: 15 August 2026 for Bomolled, 16 August for Noosh Mazandaran and 23 August for Pars Paper. In each case, watch two things: whether the bidding was held at all or the offering went without a buyer, and, if a trade takes place, who the official notice names as the buyer. Then, in the company's next report, compare the major shareholder line against today.
This report is informational and educational only and is not a recommendation to buy or sell any security.
