Iran – Tehran Chamber of Commerce

The Tehran Chamber of Commerce is a non-governmental organization whose purpose is to foster growth in Iran’s economy. It actively publishes a list of its member companies, which usually includes the English and Farsi company names, some contact information, and the managing director. This information is self-reported by the companies.

The Tehran Chamber of Commerce can be a useful resource for gathering company information and, specifically, identifying the English-language aliases of its members.

Identifying English company names through the Tehran Chamber of Commerce

Most Iranian records are written entirely in Farsi, However, the Tehran Chamber of Commerce provides not only a company’s Farsi name but also the English version of that name used by the company.

Due diligence and other investigative workflows often start with only an English name for an Iranian company. This means the analyst needs to determine that company’s Farsi name in order to locate relevant public records. Determining the correct Farsi name from the English (or vice versa, depending on the case) can present a significant challenge:

• English representations of Farsi company names may rely on translations, transliterations, or some combination of the two. For example, the Iranian company شرکت صنايع ايمني پوشا could represent its name in English using a translation (e.g. PUSHA SAFETY INDUSTRY CO.) or a transliteration (e.g. SANAYE IMENI PUSHA CO.). In this case, the company reports on its Tehran Chamber of Commerce filing that it uses the translated name.
  
  
• English transliterations of Farsi are inconsistent, with the same Farsi letters represented multiple ways in English (e.g. the Farsi letter و can be written in English as ‘oo’, ‘ou’, ‘u’, or ‘o’). Furthermore, Arabic script ‘short’ vowels are not usually indicated by diacritical marks in official documents, which adds more ambiguity to transliterating. 
  

The side-by-side English and Farsi names in the Tehran Chamber of Commerce help analysts avoid these challenges. Knowing exactly how an Iranian company represents its name in English aids in proper disambiguations and further research.