Polyacryil Iran Corporation.

The Polyacryl Iran Corporation was incorporated in August 1974 to develop a synthetic textile industry in Iran as a joint venture of E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company (40%) and the Behshahr Industrial Development Corp. (22%), a conglomerate run by the influential Lajevardian familiy, with the remaining shares held by the banks providing financing. DuPont was to provide the technical know-how, design a plant to be built in Isfahan, and train Iranian managers and technicians. The scheme had the approval of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlevi as part of his modernization program. The Isfahan plant produced the first acrylic fibers made in Iran on August 29, 1978.

No sooner had the plant become operational that the first rumblings of the revolution that would topple the Shah swept the country. DuPont curtailed operations and evacuated its last personnel at the beginning of January 1979, a few weeks before the Shah fled. The Ayatollah Khomeini's Islamic Republic of Iran nationalized the company in July 1979. DuPont was eventually awarded $42 million in compensation. The company remains at the center of Iran's synthetic textile industry.

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