RDIF Toddling Along With $620M Invested

Moscow Times
Two years after being born during the 2011 St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, Russia’s state owned fund for attracting foreign investment has hammered out five key partnership agreements with both private and government run global peers.
It has put $620 million of its own funds into key projects and convinced partners to cough up another $2 billion.
A brainchild of then-President Dmitry Medvedev, the Russia Direct Investment Fund, or RDIF, operates as a subsidiary of Vneshekonombank and has been allocated $10 billion of government money. The fund is designed to improve the investment climate and boost Moscow’s potential as an international financial center by co-funding projects with foreign investors, acting as an incarnation of the Russian government.
The RDIF policy is to invest $50 million to $500 million in each project, while a co-investor must put up at least the same amount.
To qualify as a partner, a co-investor must have either $1 billion of assets under management or $1 billion of revenues. The fund, whose role in a given project is expected to last for up to seven years, will limit its stake to a maximum of 49 percent, but expects its average share to be about 25 percent.
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