High on the shopping list for Iranian president Hassan Rouhani was an order for 114 Airbus (Fr:AIR) jets. Word is that Boeing (US:BOE) will be the next stop for the Iranians, although the US company has more hoops to jump through than its French counterpart, including a waiver to bypass its home country's remaining trade barriers, according to a BBC report. More was expected from Mr Rouhani's trip westwards this week, including possible contracts with French carmakers Peugeot (Fr:UG) and Renault (Fr:RNO). Indeed, anyone that has attempted the death-defying stunt of crossing the road in Tehran understands the importance of the automobile to the Iranian public - indeed, the government has subsidised oil for decades at a substantial cost.
France and Iran have shared cultural ties and much less historical baggage. The founder of the modern Islamic state, Ayatollah Khomeini, orchestrated the religious element of the 1979 revolution for a few months of his high-profile exile in Paris. After the revolution, a wave of political emigrants departed the new regime for France. Big business across the channel is clearly comfortable with the remaining reputational and political risk that is involved with investing in Iran.
Of course, it is not just France that is getting in on the early action. Germany is another country with strong cultural and historical ties to Iran: engineering major Siemens (Ger:SIE) has signed a contract to build train carriages and upgrade train lines in the country. "If you look at what Iran needs to rebuild its country, it almost looks like a description of business for Siemens," its chief executive officer Joe Kaeser told Bloomberg TV. To Iran's east, Japanese companies are also keen to build on what has been a less fraught diplomatic relationship between the two countries.
For UK companies, one sector that is bearing much hope is oil services, another industry where Iran's infrastructure is in dire need of improvement. That could provide a much-needed fillip for the embattled sector. Less is expected of European banks, with lenders such as Standard Chartered (STAN) still stinging from past regulatory bills. But with these deals meaning longer-term contracts, risks remain - not least the question of whether they will survive a Republican in the Oval Office. Given the strength of rhetoric coming from the party's frontrunner Donald Trump, observers would be forgiven for thinking the diplomatic progress could be easily lost.
Henry Smith, associate director at consultancy Control Risks, is more optimistic. "We are fairly firm in our view that the agreement is going to stick," he says. The consensus position in Washington has clearly moved against embroiling the superpower in a deteriorating regional conflict, and the US Treasury has already removed more than 400 individuals and companies from its blocked list. As for the Iran side, Mr Smith says, "it is quite clear that there is pretty broad agreement" for maintaining the truce, even among the clerical establishment and the country's powerful security force, the Revolutionary Guard. Iran's hardliners seem to have decided the stability of the country comes ahead of an ideological battle with western powers.
The bigger question is what it means for Iran's great regional rival, Saudi Arabia. The Saudis have been working hard on their public relations as they cope with Iran's business revival at the same time as their diplomatic relationship with the country has broken down. The threat of a stronger Iran, with an improved energy infrastructure, comes at a time when Saudi Arabia has already been sapped by its efforts to flood the markets with cheap oil to price out US shale producers. Each week, there is report of another asset sell-off, the latest suggesting the gulf state may have to sell some of its vast holdings of US government debt.
But it is possible the media are overplaying the severity of the kingdom's financial challenges, and that fiscal prudence, rather than fire sales, should be expected. "They are really tightening the budget on any excess spending," says Mr Smith. "They are reducing the proportion and amount of money that they will pay up front for public contracts." With the return of its neighbour to the international community, investors will have to pay greater attention to this regional dynamic and its implication for global companies and the commodity markets.
