Russian Sovereign Wealth Fund, SBI Plan $2 Billion Investment

New Delhi: Russian sovereign wealth fund RDIF and State Bank of India plan to set up a $2 billion investment consortium aimed at promoting mutual investments between the two countries.

The $10 billion-Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) is Russia's sovereign wealth fund.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for setting up the consortium would be signed later between RDIF and SBI, as part of Russian President Vladimir Putin's official visit to India.

"RDIF and State Bank of India would each invest up to $1 billion in the proposed co-investment consortium," RDIF Chief Executive Officer Kirill Dmitriev told PTI.

The consortium can make investments in India and Russia. "Basically we are creating this platform that has capital allocated for high return projects in interesting sectors, with synergy between India and Russia," Dmitriev said.

Once the agreement is in place, RDIF and SBI would team up to facilitate access to long-term capital in Russia and India besides promoting mutual investments.

The emphasis would be on projects geared towards higher purchasing power of the population, creation of value addition in the extraction and processing of natural resources as well as development of manufacturing businesses and service sector companies.