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Russia’s VTB, Vietnam’s BIDV bank to set up $500Mln fund
Russia’s second largest bank by assets, VTB, and Vietnam’s third biggest bank, BIDV, signed a deal on Sunday to jointly launch a US$500 million fund to invest in energy and mining, VTB’s chairman said on October 31.
In the first stage, which the banks hope to begin next year, VTB will inject $10 million, BIDV will put in $5 million and they plan to raise another $85 million via capital markets, Andrei Kostin told reporters.
“The fund will support projects in the energy field and mining. We agreed to set up the fund in 2011,” he said.
He said the Vietnamese side suggested that Russia cut part of Hanoi’s sovereign debt estimated at $700 million, which Vietnam borrowed from the Soviet Union in the past and which is estimated at $700 million.
Russia had not yet responded to the offer, he said.
The deal was among a dozen of contracts, including an agreement to jointly build Vietnam’s first nuclear power station, that were signed during a visit to Hanoi by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.
Trade between Russia and Vietnam increased to $1.56 billion last year from $1.4 billion a year ago and was up another 16.6 percent year-on-year in the first half of 2010, according to Russian government figures.
Bolstering economic cooperation has been Russia’s main focus in recent years in relations with Vietnam, site of a Cold War showdown with the United States and once the home of the Soviet Union’s biggest naval base abroad.
tuoitrenews, Reuters
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