Random musings about RUSNANO (Russian Corporation of Nanotechnologies)

RUSNANO has created a splash internationally since  it first appeared (although there is some confusion as to RUSNANO’s start date; I have more about that at the end of this posting). There are periods of intense activity where it seems that every few weeks a new announcement is made as happened recently when three major announcements were made from mid to late June 2011.

Russia, Korea, and Singapore announced that they would form a $100M Asia Nanotechnology Tund. From the June 16, 2011 news item on Nanowerk,

RUSNANO, the Korean Ministry of Knowledge Economy’s Korea Institute for the Advancement of Technology (KIAT), Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB), the St. Petersburg Government, 360ip and Samho Green Investment Venture Capital (SGIVC) announced today the formation of the Asia Nanotechnology Fund.

The parties entered into a Memorandum of Understanding today as part of the St. Petersburg World Economic Forum. The memorandum was signed by RUSNANO CEO Anatoly Chubais, KIAT Vice President Yeong Cheol Seok, 360ip President and CEO Glenn Kline and SGI President & CEO Taesoo Yang. Also participating in the announcement and expressing their support for the Fund were the Honorable Simon Tensing de Cruz, Singapore Ambassador to Russia, and St. Petersburg Governor Valentina Matviyenko.

The Fund – which is being formed as a limited partnership in the Republic of Korea and which will have its Russia team based in St. Petersburg — will have a total capitalization of US$100 million of which RUSNANO Capital LLC, the investment vehicle of RUSNANO, is investing US$50 million and KIAT is investing KRW20 billion (about $18 million). The EDB will support the Singapore-based business of the Fund’s portfolio companies with grants aggregating to US$20 million. No less than 50 percent of the fund will be invested in the Fund’s Russia-based projects.

Since RUSNANO is investing $50M (50% of the Asia Nanotechnology Fund) and at least 50% of the fund ($50M) must be invested in Russian projects, I don’t see the point of the fund; the Russians might as well keep the money at home and invest directly in Russian projects (the same goes for the other partners). Unless, the whole point of the exercise is public relations, i. e., it’s more prestigious to have your funds come from an international organization such as the Asia Nanotechnology Fund rather than a home funding agency such as RUSNANO or KIAT.

Dashing hopes with a little more cold water, here’s this comment about RUSNANO and MOUs from Dexter Johnson (Nanoclast on the IEEE website) in his June 24, 2011 posting,

A fair share of the announced deals really only involve MOUs, and the world of business is littered with MOUs that never actually turn into contracts.

A few days after the Asian Foundation Fund,  another announcement came from RUSNANO, this time about Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) and the future of retail outlets in Russia. From the June 20, 2011 news item on Nanowerk,

The St. Petersburg International Economic Forum hosted the signing of the investment agreement for a project RUSNANO, SITRONICS, and X5 Retail Group will launch-the Store of the Future.

With RUSNANO CEO Anatoly Chubais and Sistema Chairman of the Board Vladimir Evtushenkov looking on, RUSNANO Deputy CEO Andrey Malyshev, SITRONICS President and CEO Sergey Aslanian, and X5 Retail Group CEO Andrei Gusev signed the investment agreement.

The project will create nano-enabled solutions for introducing and exploiting RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) technology in Russia’s retail industry. If successful in its development work, the project will establish a company-integrator to introduce RFID technology to domestic retail trade.

Radio frequency identification is a great boon to retail: RFID tags reduce expenses throughout the distribution and sale of goods. They effectively control merchandise turnover in the supply chain. The tags, electronic certificates for consumer goods, protect the buyer from falsified items, improve product surveillance, and prevent inadvertent sale of expired products, particularly drugs and foodstuffs.

The project has a budget totaling 350 million rubles. Investment will be divided equally among the three participants over two years.

In 2013, assuming successful development of the RFID technology, the project will open Russia’s first model grocery store for the future. X5 Retail Group will provide the platform. The project will also develop sector standards, which are prerequisites for changing the regulatory and legal framework for retail production and trade.

The last recent announcement I’m featuring was for a Memorandum of Cooperation between RUSNANO and Toyota Tsusho. From the June 23, 2011 news item on Nanwerk,

RUSNANO and Toyota Tsusho have signed a memorandum of cooperation making way for collaborative endeavors in electronics, inorganic chemistry, environment, and automobile manufacturing. The memorandum was signed by RUSNANO Deputy CEO for International Cooperation Alexander Losyukov and Toyota Tsusho Executive Vice-President Kenji Takanashi.

Toyota Tsusho devotes considerable energies to developing cooperation with Russia, and holds the prospects of working together to advance the high-tech sector of industry in high regard.

“In addition to our traditional automobile dealerships in Russia, Toyota Tsusho has decided to concentrate on developing the high-technology sector of industry. Together with RUSNANO, we shall work on establishing innovative manufacturing businesses using leading Japanese and Russian technologies,” said Mr. Takanashi.

“We intend to create projects in Russia that unite the strengths of Japanese high-technology with the potential of the Russian economy,” Mr. Losyukov explained.

This announcement seems to cover good intentions more than anything else.

There are more details about RUSNANO’s latest deals in Tim Harper’s June 20, 2011 posting (Note: I’m cherrypicking a few items in this posting) on TNTlog and more commentary in Dexter Johnson’s June 24, 2011 posting (mentioned earlier) where he notes some of the skepticism and criticism that has followed RUSNANO. In fact, even the Russians aren’t so sure about the agency (excerpted from the August 3, 2011 article by Nikita Dulnev for Russia: Beyond the Headlines),

Until now, very little has been known about what nanotechnology corporation Rusnano actually does. At the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum in June, organization head Anatoly Chubais said that some think it is an investment fund while others believe it is another state corporation used as a cover for divvying up the budget. What does Rusnano actually do? According to Chubais, it not only invests in nanotechnology inventions, but it also helps them become commercial enterprises.

Microchips

 

This is easily the most ambitious Rusnano project. The 16.5 billion ruble ($592 million) Citronixs-Nano plant being launched outside Moscow is expected to bring in a 12 billion ruble profit by 2015. The plant will produce 90-nanometer chips. Chubais stressed that, although this is not a world record (more sophisticated facilities exist in Europe, the U.S. and Asia), 90 nanometers is the norm for microchips used in most modern electronic devices. This will be the first such enterprise in Russia.

Food preservation

The Danaflex enterprise in Kazan is one of the few Rusnano projects producing goods aimed at the mass consumer. This is a rare technology that, without going into too much detail, is used to produce food packaging. It looks like ordinary cling wrap for vegetables in supermarkets, but there is a difference. Danaflex film has a coating that reduces the amount of air and moisture that can penetrate through the film, helping to preserve the food longer. It is a bit more expensive to produce than other food wraps, but savings are made elsewhere because less preservative is needed in the food itself and, unlike other wraps, it can be recycled easily.

There were no details about any of the international projects where RUSNANO has investments, including the Canadian venture I mentioned in my Sept. 14, 2010 posting, the Canada-Russia Nanotechnology Venture Capital Fund. According to the Sept. 13, 2010 news release on Canadian News Wire,

Subject to certain conditions, RUSNANO has signed a ground breaking Memorandum of Understanding committing to be a very significant lead order and partner in this new Nano Fund. Final corporate approvals are expected prior to the end of 2010, allowing this Fund to be operational in 2011. [emphasis mine]

I hope we hear more about the projects being supported by the Canada-Russia Nanotechnology Venture Capital Fund (assuming that approvals were received and that there is money in the fund).

I did notice in two of the news items (news releases) a statement to the effect that RUSNANO was founded in 2011. From the June 20, 2011 item on Nanowerk,

RUSNANO was established in March 2011 as an open joint-stock company through reorganization of state corporation Russian Corporation of Nanotechnologies.

Then again, in the June 23, 2011 item on Nanowerk,

RUSNANO was founded in 2011, resulting of the restructuring process for the Russian Nanotechnology Corporation.

It seems a little subtle to me since the RUSNANO name has been in use since 2009 (my April 14 ,2009 posting).

3 thoughts on “Random musings about RUSNANO (Russian Corporation of Nanotechnologies)

  1. Konstantin Kazaryan

    Dear Sir,
    My name is Konstantin Kazaryan and I work for RUSNANO. Let me clarify the situation with the RUSNANO finding date for you. RUSNANO was found in 2007 as a State Corporation (a special form of organization in Russia) which ended it’s existance on December 31 2010, and since January 1 2011 it was reorganized to a Joint Stock Company RUSNANO with a 100% state ownership. If you want to know more about RUSNANO you may follow us on Twitter @rusnano_en and on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/En.Rusnano . We have recently opened our accounts in English.
    Best regards,
    Konstantin

  2. admin

    Dear Konstantin, Thank you for reading my post. I much appreciate the time you’ve taken to explain the situation regarding RUSNANO’s founding date and its current status as a Joint Stock Company. While I don’t participate on Facebook (although I’m sure some of my readers do), I look forward to following RUSNANO on Twitter. Best regards, Maryse

  3. Pingback: RUSNANO and the world of nanotechnology-enabled retail services « FrogHeart

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *