This is a turnaround. The news items usually state that RUSNANO (Russian Corporation of Nanotechnologies) is about to invest money but this time they’re selling their investment. From the May 28, 2012 news item on Nanowerk,

RUSNANO’s Board of Directors has approved the company’s first exit from a previously-invested company. RUSNANO sells its 27.6 percent equity stake in Advanced Technologies Center, a leading producer of scanning probe microscopes and atomic scales. The sale to the project applicant, NPP CPT will generate IRR of 29.5 percent on RUSNANO’s investment.

RUSNANO’s co-financing enabled the high-tech company founded by Moscow State University professor Igor Yaminsky to reach next level of business and to expand its line of scanning probe microscopes [SPM] and SPM software. RUSNANO has invested 50 million rubles in the project, out of the 140 million rubles originally planned. In December 2011 the portfolio company opened a production site which will double its production capacity up to the revenue levels of 70 million rubles by the end of 2012.

The deal meets two essential RUSNANO’s criteria for successful exit: IRR is no lower than was planned, and the project is able to develop independently.

I had to look up ‘internal rate of investment’ (IRR) and found this essay on Wikipedia (Note: I have removed links and footnotes from the excerpt),

The internal rate of return (IRR) is a rate of return used in capital budgeting to measure and compare the profitability of investments. It is also called the discounted cash flow rate of return (DCFROR) or the rate of return (ROR). In the context of savings and loans the IRR is also called the effective interest rate. The term internal refers to the fact that its calculation does not incorporate environmental factors (e.g., the interest rate or inflation).

The news item goes on to describe the Russian company,  Advanced Technologies Center’s (not to be confused with New Zealand’s government agency, Advanced Technology Institute) product line (from the May 28, 2012 news item),

The main product of the Advanced Technologies Center is the FemtoScan series of scanning probe microscopes, high-precision instruments that use the mechanical motion of a probe (cantilever) to study the surface of a sample at the nanoscale. SPMs are used for research in chemistry, physics, biology and medicine, as well as for industrial applications such as surface quality control. The company also produces SPM control and image processing software, as well as precision scales capable to detect substances at atomic level.

There seems to be a lot of action in the world of microscopy these days. This is the second item I’ve written on the topic in the last 10 days (and it’s not my main area of interest).