OREANDA-NEWS. Meeting in regular session, the Board of Directors of RUSNANO elected Vladislav Putilin as its chairman.

Members of the Board of Directors adopted a financing resolution for a project to develop and commercialize high-performance, energy-efficient microprocessors designed with the application of advanced nanotechnologies (28 nanometers and fewer).

The portfolio company is devising innovative architecture for a processor and the system-on-chip based on the processor. It plans to license its solutions to third parties, which design mobile electronic devices and systems. Microprocessors built on the company’s architecture have greater processing power and require less energy than ARM or x86 architectures available in the market.

Details of RUSNANO's new investment project will be released after investment agreements have been signed by participants.

The Board of Directors considered the need for additional financing for a project to establish Russia’s first complex for mass production of polysilicon. The NITOL Group and its subdivision portfolio company Usolie-Sibirsky Silicon are the only chemical manufacturers in Russia engaged in commercial-scale polysicilon production.

The company commissioned a processing chain for polysilicon production in 2011. It has developed nearly all elements of its material-technical and infrastructure base, acquired sufficient experience providing engineering support for production processes, perfected quality control over feedstock, and trained personnel in production processes and prepared them for the company’s future development.

Circumstances in the market (The price of polysilicon has fallen from USD 300 per kilogram to USD 16.) have created significant commercial difficulties for the company. This has prevented it from selling its products at planned levels. In accordance with instructions from the Government of the Russian Federation, to support and preserve unique domestic production of polysilicon, additional financing is to be extended by shareholders with support from the government through 2015. The Board of Directors of RUSNANO approved additional funding of up to 1.5 billion rubles.

Additional financing from shareholders will be devoted to capital investment—completion of construction of the nitrogen-oxygen plant and a power station, both important production facilities—achievement of production capacity of 1,800 tons of polysilicon per year in 2016, and expenditures required to maintain operating capability to that time.

Likewise the Board of Directors considered progress in implementing the Liotech project to produce lithium-ion batteries and changes in the terms of financing for the portfolio company. Liotech had initially targeted producers of electric transport as primary purchasers of its goods. The pace, however, at which that market would develop had been overestimated in Russia and abroad. The project company was forced to correct its strategy and change the assortment of products its manufactures. As a result, a change in management occurred. New management intends in the next few months to present to RUSNANO a new strategy for development. The board resolved to allocate 423 million rubles to finance activities of the company. Of that sum, RUSNANO will extend 170 million rubles before approving the strategy.

In other action, the Board of Directors heard a report on the closing of three investment projects that had earlier received approval for financing but in which RUSNANO had made no investments:

Highly porous cellular materials: manufacture of nanostructured highly porous cellular materials with catalytic layer and equipment using the materials

Hardened glass: manufacture of high-quality, light-weight glass containers strengthened with nanostructured coatings

Replacement and regenerative medicine: GMP production of transdermal therapeutic systems and implantations for replacement and regenerative medicine

The reasons for closing these projects:

Inability or unwillingness of the applicant and/or co-investors to assume responsibilities for realizing the projects

Decision not to undertake joint realization of projects because of disagreement with RUSNANO’s prerequisites for financing the project, including the presence of co-investors

The Board of Directors heard a report on progress toward realizing a project it had earlier approved for commercial-scale production of VLSI integrated circuits using nanoelectronic technology with design norms of 90 nanometers.

Also during the meeting, the Board of Directors decided that it was not practicable to work out and adopt a special program for disposition of core assets of RUSNANO (part of fulfilling Instructions of the President of the Russian Federation № Pr-1092 [clause 1, subclauses b and c] dated April 27, 2012, and Instructions of the Government of the Russian Federation № ISh-P13-2638 dated May 2, 2012) because the balance sheet of the company contains no core assets other than those acquired for primary activity. The realization of equity interest in or shares in authorized capital of project companies derives from decisions by management bodies of RUSNANO in conformance with conditions and terms of project financing.

Finally, the Board of Directors sanctioned a voluntary donation of four million rubles for the benefit of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs. Three members of the Board of Directors of RUSNANO being as well members of the board of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs—Anatoly Chubais, Vladimir Dmitriev, and Mikhail Pogosyan—are interested parties in the transaction.