By Gernot Heller
FRANKFURT: Herrenknecht, a German tunnelling company that helped to build the Tehran metro in the 1990s, is ready to pounce on projects it expects to be put up for tender by Iran following the lifting of international sanctions, its chairman told Reuters.
Martin Herrenknecht said the family-run company he founded in the 1970s, which used to do business worth up to 15 million euros ($16 million) a year in Iran, had maintained contact with its former business partners throughout the sanctions.
“There are projects that the Iranians will put out to tender, if they get their money unfrozen, and we will bid for them,” he said in a telephone interview.
“I’ll be there in the next two months.”
Iran emerged from years of economic isolation when world powers lifted sanctions over the weekend in return for Tehran’s compliance with a deal to curb its nuclear ambitions, opening the door for Germany and others to begin restoring trade links.
Germany, which has commercial and cultural ties with Iran that go back to the 19th century, was for decades a major trading partner of Tehran before the sanctions allowed China and several other nations to overtake it.
Herrenknecht said his experience of doing business in Iran, with its highly technically educated population, was overwhelmingly positive. “I can only recommend it,” he said.
“I am optimistic that we can do good business there again.”
($1 = 0.9178 euros)
(Writing by Georgina Prodhan; Editing by Mark Potter)
Reuters
