The Moscow Times, Wednesday, Apr. 4, 2001. Page 10
| Company |
DEF's Investment |
Equity |
Comments |
| KKI Interconnect |
$2.5 million |
31% |
KKI Interconnect is a company whose management and staff used to operate nuclear weapons testing sites in Kazakhstan. After a few false starts trying to make products in Kazakhstan for Western consumption, it is now focused on manufacturing for the local market. Among other things it assembles Samsung televisions from kits, and hopes later this year to start locally producing some of the parts. |
| RTN |
$4.5 million |
13.3% |
Moscow-based RTN provides data and telecommunication services. DEF's investment was intended to enable regional expansion of RTN's network, and the hiring of significant numbers of military communications engineers. |
| RUSNET Labs |
$5 million |
35% |
A Moscow region telephone operating company. Like RTN, it also employs communication engineers formerly involved in the design and production of strategic command and control systems. |
| RAMEC |
$6 million |
40% |
RAMEC is a St. Petersburg-based computer assembly line co-founded by Impuls, a military research and production company. The DEF's 1996 investment of $3 million for equity of 40 percent was followed in 1997 by an additional $3 million credit line. DEF is in negotiations with the company to restructure the full repayment of this credit plus interest, which has been in default since 1998. |
| Liform |
$760,000 |
80% |
In partnership with a former anti-tank grenade factory in Ukraine, Liform recycles aluminum scrap. The DEF is now looking to merge Liform with another Pentagon-funded conversion project in Ukraine to form a die-casting operation. |
| Nursat |
$3 million |
8.75% |
Nursat is a Kazakh telephone carrier. Other partners include Lucent Technologies and the State Property Committee of Kazakhstan. |
All told, the DEF has invested $21.76 million in these six companies. An August 2000 report by the Pentagon put the value of the portfolio at $31 million.
Sources: Defense Enterprise Fund, U.S. Defense Department.
