Ties are Cut as India's Joint Venture With Iranian Shipping Company Gets Strangled

(Bloomberg) — Shipping Corp. of India said a joint-venture with the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines will end after sanctions against the Iranian company crimped the entity’s ability to trade.

“Between the two promoters, there has been an understanding reached that the assets of the company will be split between the promoters and it will cease operation,” Sabyasachi Hajara, chairman of Mumbai-based SCI, said by phone today.

SCI, which is majority owned the Indian government, has 49 percent of the venture. IRISL is the holder of the remainder, Hajara said. The precise details and timing of the split have yet to be decided, he said.

IRISL’s assets are blocked and frozen in the U.S., which is intensifying sanctions targeting the Persian Gulf state’s nuclear development. Iran says its program is for civilian purposes.

The person who answered the phone in Tehran-based IRISL’s commercial department declined to give his name and said he was unable to comment today. He referred further questions to the company’s public affairs office and nobody answered the phone there outside normal office hours.