VEB.RF plans to create the first equity fund in the next two weeks

Today, January 25, at a meeting of the Investment Committee of the Ministry of Economy, a decision was made to approve the creation of the first equity fund, VEB.RF Chairman Igor Shuvalov said following his speech at the plenary meeting of the Federation Council. According to him, such a fund can be created “in the next two weeks.” Recall, according to the instructions of the President, up to 10% of the cost of investment projects of the Project Finance Factory can be financed through equity funds, which will be formed at the expense of investments by the state corporation and commercial banks – in turn, VEB guarantees a minimum return on bank investments. As Igor Shuvalov noted, equity funds are needed so that project initiators can “replace” the lack of capital using the funds accumulated there.

The mechanism itself is being developed as part of the optimization of the work of the Project Finance Factory. Previously, the requirements for the minimum share of investors’ own funds in “factory” projects have already been temporarily reduced – in 2023-2024 it will be 15% instead of 20%, and projects of operating companies, and not just specially created ones, are also allowed to be financed (see Kommersant of November 15). Such an indulgence, with the possibility of an even greater reduction in the investor’s participation at the expense of the fund’s instrument, Igor Shuvalov believes, will allow launching more projects.

At the same time, Igor Shuvalov said at a meeting of the Federation Council, VEB.RF, together with the government, is working on a regulatory framework for financing risky high-tech projects – now the state corporation does not have such an opportunity. The option proposed so far is the formation of a portfolio of projects, where the risks will be divided between VEB.RF and banks in half, and the assessment of success will be made on the portfolio as a whole, and not on individual projects.