KIA to invest $500 mln in Russia projects

Kuwait’s sovereign wealth fund, the Kuwait Investment Authority, agreed to provide an additional $500 million to investment projects in Russia.

The transaction follows a $500 million commitment KIA previously made in 2012 when it first announced its co-investing partnership with Russian Direct Investment Fund.

Today’s agreement was also made via that same partnership with RDIF.

RDIF CEO Kirill Dmitriev and Bader Mohammad Al-Saad, KIA CEO and Managing Director, signed the agreement during a special ceremony. Russian President Vladmir Putin and His Highness the Emir of Kuwait, Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah were present.

KIA has also agreed to expand its share in RDIF’s automatic co-investment mechanism. This entails automatic participation as a co-investor in all of RDIF’s ongoing deals.

KIA has invested in more than 20 deals with RDIF through the automatic co-investment mechanism, a source familiar with the partnership said. This includes investing in Russian retailer Lenta‘s secondary public offering last March, the source said.

Founded in 2011, Moscow-based RDIF was launched for foreign investors to make co-investments in Russia.

Photo of  Moscow’s St. Basil’s Cathedral courtesy of Shutterstock.