National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) Ltd. has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with RUSNANO OJSC of Russia

The signing of the MoU is a follow-up of the Prime Minister’s visit to Russia on 23-24 December, 2015 and discussions between NIIF and RUSNANO over the past several months. Both sides agreed to cooperate in diverse sectors and facilitate high-technology investments in India.

Both NIIF and RUSNANO have agreed to set up the RUSSIA-INDIA HIGH TECHNOLOGY PRIVATE EQUITY FUND for joint implementation of investments into projects in India:

Both the Parties will establish a joint working group with a view to further develop cooperation between the Parties and work on the development of the definitive agreements based on the principles outlined in the Memorandum.

Earlier, the Government of India has established the National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) as a Category II Alternate Investment Fund (AIF) under the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) Regulations. NIIF is financed from Government’s own contribution and is expected to have equity participation from both foreign and domestic strategic anchor partners, with the Government’s share being 49%. The initial authorized corpus of NIIF is ₹ 40,000 crore, which may be raised from time to time. The objective of NIIF is to maximise economic impact mainly through infrastructure development in commercially viable projects, both Greenfield and Brownfield, including stalled projects and other nationally important projects in India.

RUSNANO is a Russian development institute with interest to invest in projects in the field of high technologies and defense including the projects aimed at establishment of manufacturing industrial enterprises in India.

High-technology private equity fund formed to enable joint Russia-India equity investments under a bilateral MoU. Agreement to form a high-technology private equity fund for joint implementation of investments in India, accompanied by a joint working group to develop cooperation and negotiate definitive agreements based on the MoU; the Indian partner is a government-seeded Category II Alternate Investment Fund with a mandate to pursue infrastructure and commercially viable Greenfield and Brownfield projects and to attract foreign and domestic strategic equity participation.