Hudson Sandler wins global brief for Russian investment fund

The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) was created in June 2011 under the leadership of then-Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to help grow international investment into the country and elevate Moscow’s standing as an international financial centre.

Hudson Sandler will handle global comms after a competitive pitch, with domestic media handled by an in-house team. The fund previously used Frontier PR.

The Hudson Sandler team will be led by CEO Andrew Hayes alongside the agency’s Russian practice head Maria Ignatova, account manager Elena Kuza and MD Andrew Leach.

RDIF is looking to invest in sectors across the Russian economy and internationally, with each investment having at least one co-investor so that the fund acts as catalyst for bringing foreign direct investment, global best practices and new technologies to Russia.

Since its launch RDIF has created a multi-billion dollar Russia-China investment fund and partnered BlackRock, Goldman Sachs and Templeton Asset Management to establish a ‘pre IPO fund’ to invest in Russian businesses preparing for stock market listings.

The fund’s management company is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Russia’s state development bank Vnesheconombank (VEB).

This article was first published on prweek.com