FEDF, Metropoly to form $2 bln investment funds in Far East
VLADIVOSTOK. March 30 (Interfax) - Russia's Far East and Baikal Development Fund (FEDF) and China's privately owned Metropoly have signed memorandums to form two investment funds, one for mining and one for infrastructure and construction, the FEDF said in a statement.
The target size of each fund is $1 billion in 2017.
The FEDF will have a 10% stake and Asian partners up to 80%. Russian investors will invest the other 10%.
World-class infrastructure and development projects in the Far East should receive up to $2 billion in equity investment over the next five years.
Overall investments in these projects will come to $6 billion-$8 billion, including leverage.
The potential investment targets include 15 gold mining projects with resources of 1,500 tonnes Au; two major copper-gold projects in the Far East; and seven projects to create new infrastructure and tourism real estate.
The joint investment funds, involving state institutions and private capital, will be an additional source of finance for projects to set up new enterprises and build infrastructure in the Far East, and a means for involving Russia in the large-scale One Belt, One Road infrastructure project.
"At issue is China's initiative to combine the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st-century Maritime Silk Road projects - a global, long-term project, which resonates with the program to develop the Russian Far East, which Russian President Vladimir Putin has declared to be a national priority for the 21st century," the FEDF said.
The Kommersant newspaper has said the new fund might invest in projects like the Baimskaya copper-porphyry field in Chukotka, with resources of 32 million tonnes copper and 70.5 million oz gold, which is licensed to Roman Abramovich's Baimskaya Mining Company.
Metropoly is a family holding owned by the chairman of the China World Trade Center, Ang Keng Lam (Kuok family).
FEDF, part of the Vnesheconmbank group, invests in new enterprises and infrastructure, and has net assets of 20 billion rubles.